Sultan Al Neyadi is all set to create history today by becoming the first Arab astronaut to undertake a spacewalk during Expedition 69 on the International Space Station (ISS).
Watch Live: The first Arab spacewalk
The UAE astronaut Sultan AlNeyadi emerged from the Quest airlock of the International Space Station on Friday, at 5.41pm GST, for a six-and-a-half hour spacewalk.
With a proud UAE flag on his sleeve, Sultan AlNeyadi represents the Arab world with pride.
The UAE will become the 10th country to perform a spacewalk on the ISS. AlNeyadi will be part of the 262nd spacewalk in support of assembly, maintenance, and upgrades on the space station.
Sultan AlNeyadi is accompanied by NASA Flight Engineer Stephen Bowen. The duo have multiple tasks assigned to them, including retrieving and relocating foot restraints that astronauts can use during future spacewalks, preparing a part of the station for a solar array installation and retrieving a piece of communication hardware.
Dr Al Neyadi will also be retrieving a radio frequency unit that will eventually be sent back to Earth for repairs.
AlNeyadi trained for more than 55 hours at NASA’s Neutral Buoyancy Laboratory (NBL) at the Johnson Space Center in Houston, Texas in preparation for spacewalks. During his time at the NBL, AlNeyadi underwent nine runs of six hours each, training underwater simulating spacewalks utilising the full mock-up of the ISS.
Spacewalks, also known as Extravehicular Activity (EVA), on the ISS are crucial for maintaining, upgrading, and enhancing the orbiting laboratory’s capabilities. These spacewalks allow astronauts to perform tasks such as maintenance and repair of essential systems, installation of new technology and hardware, and assembly and construction of the ISS modules.
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