Dubai. Emirati astronaut Sultan al Neyadi left the International Space Station (ISS) on Friday, becoming the first Arab to go into space, something his country described as “historic”.
Aged 41, Al Neyadi is the fourth astronaut from an Arab country and the second Emirati to go into space, but the first to leave the ISS, for a duration of six hours and thirty minutes.
Dressed in a space suit carrying the Emirati flag, he made “the first outing into space in the history of an Arab astronaut,” the Mohamed ben Rachid Space Center (MBRSC) of the United Arab Emirates said on its website, calling the event of a “new historical stage”.
Together with the American Stephen Bowen, his mission is to “prepare the installation of solar panels,” the Emirati astronaut explained on Twitter.
Nicknamed the “Sultan of Space”, he is also the first Arab to take part in a long-duration space mission. He was sent to the ISS in early March aboard a Space X Falcon 9 rocket.
The wealthy Gulf country United Arab Emirates launched into the space race in 2019 by sending Hazzaa al Mansoori into space for an eight-day mission on the ISS. But he did not go into space.
In 1985, Saudi Arabia sent the first Arab and Muslim astronaut in history on a space flight launched from the United States.
On Wednesday, a lunar rover built by the United Arab Emirates was lost on a mission to the moon.
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