This year for Id al Adha or Bakrid, residents of the United Arab Emirates (UAE) received greetings in Arabic from a well-wisher in outer space — astronaut Sultan Al Neyadi, who is on a six-month long mission to the International Space Station. Clad in a kandura (the traditional outfit for Emirati men), just as he had done for Id al Fitr over a month ago, Mr. Al Neyadi floated into the Cupola Observatory of the International Space Station (ISS), holding little Suhail, the stuffed toy mascot of Mohammed bin Rashid Research Centre (MBRSC) in Dubai, the agency that is behind the UAE Astronaut Programme.
The Sultan of Space, as he is called, has been enlightening his people with social media posts about life in space, ham radio calls and live interactions with students and officials apart from images, including of Mecca and the Dubai coastline. The 16 sunsets and sunrises visible daily from the orbiting laboratory, the difficulty of observing the Ramadan fast on space were all interesting tidbits of information for his compatriots on the earth.
Mr. Al Neyadi is part of NASA’s SpaceX Crew-6 Mission that blasted off to space on March 2 in a bid to study combustion in microgravity, cardiovascular research, among others. Four months into the mission, he has many firsts to his credit — the first Arab astronaut to embark on a long-duration space mission, the first Arab astronaut to conduct a spacewalk outside the ISS and the first astronaut to perform the martial art jiu-jitsu in space.
