UAE astronaut exits ISS for ‘first Arab space walk’
Dubai, United Arab Emirates (AFP):
Emirati astronaut Sultan Alneyadi stepped out of the International Space Station (ISS) Friday for the first space walk by an Arab astronaut, a moment touted by the UAE as a “milestone”.
Alneyadi, 41, dubbed the “Sultan of Space” by his alma mater, became the first Arab astronaut to embark on a six-month space mission when he blasted off for the ISS in early March aboard a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket.
On Friday, he undertook “the first Arab spacewalk in history,” wearing a space suit that bears the Emirati flag, said the United Arab Emirates’ Mohammed bin Rashid Space Centre (MBRSC), calling it “a new historic milestone”.
Footage live-streamed by NASA showed the UAE astronaut exiting an ISS hatch.
“Sultan Alneyadi has egressed the hatch, the first ever space walk by an Arab astronaut,” NASA said.
The UAE is a newcomer to the world of space exploration but quickly making its mark.
It sent an unmanned spacecraft to Mars in 2021, in the Arab world’s first interplanetary mission, and last year a rover to the Moon.
Earlier this week, the UAE-developed Rashid Moon rover was lost when Japanese start-up ispace’s Hakuto-R lunar lander apparently crashed on the Moon’s surface, ispace said on Wednesday.
Dubai’s ruler Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid al-Maktoum quickly directed the MBRSC to begin work on a second rover dubbed Rashid 2.
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