Sheikh Mohammed Congrats And Praises Sultan Al Neyadi, Says Arabs Are Capable Of Anything

His Highness Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, the Ruler of Dubai and the Vice President and Prime Minister of the UAE praised astronaut Sultan Al Neyadi for accomplishing the space mission. Sultan Al Neyadi who was on a space mission performed a spacewalk on the International Space Station (ISS). Completing his spacewalk astronaut Al Neyadi creates history by being the first Arab to have performed a spacewalk.

The accomplishment of the spacewalk, a milestone for the Mohammed Bin Rashid Space Centre (MBRSC) 

Sheikh Mohammed congratulated Sultan Al Neyadi and said that the Arabs are creative and capable of anything if we choose to ignore differences and concentrate on science.

He added that after three years of rigorous training, Sultan Al Neyadi is now doing multiple tasks on his first spacewalk outside the International Space Station. And he turns out to be the first Arab, Muslim, and Emirati astronaut to perform a spacewalk, he said. 

Sheikh Mohammed added that it is a known fact that many stars are having Arabic names, Arabs are intelligent and capable. The future of the Arabs will be shaped by how we prioritize science and research and invest in the youth. 

Astronaut Sultan Al Neyadi who was on the United Arab Emirates’ space mission Expedition 69 completed a spacewalk of about seven hours on Friday. Al Neyadi along with his American colleague Stephen Bowen left the International Space Station (ISS) at around 5.41 p.m. GST and returned to the orbiting laboratory by 11.40 p.m. 

The spacewalk took place on the starboard side of the International Space Station’s truss structure and it achieved two main goals.

Working on a series of preliminary tasks that consisted of routing power cables was one of the goals of the Extravehicular Activity (EVA) carried out successfully by astronaut Al Neyadi and his colleague Stephen Bowen, the NASA Flight Engineer.

The cable works were carried out as a part of the setting up of the fourth roll-out solar array of the Space Station which is also known as the International Space Station Roll-Out Solar Array (iROSA). It has been planned to transport the roll-out solar array to the Space Station on the upcoming SpaceX Dragon cargo mission. 

The second mission was to recover a key Radio Frequency Group (RFG) unit. Considering the difficulty in removing this communication antenna or RFG, it will remain bolted to the station for the time being. 

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To remove nitrogen from their bodies Al Neyadi and Bowen went through an oxygen purge for about two hours, which was performed before the spacewalk. After this, the astronauts got the support of Frank Rubio and Warren Hoburg to put on their spacesuits which is a major operation in itself. 

It took an extra hour for both Al Neyadi and Bowen to get into their spacesuits and safety gear. It will help them to reduce the pressure level to a safe mark for opening the outside hatch and is done prior to entering the airlock. Bowen entered the hatch first connecting his cable to the exterior of the hull and then Al Neyadi’s line was also anchored outside. He separated from the airlock’s interior and started the assigned activities.   

The Expedition 69 increment lead, Hazzaa Al Mansoori observed the progress of Sultan Al Neyadi’s spacewalk from the NASA ground station in Houston. A comprehensive set of safety checks were made prior to the spacewalk. The two main challenges faced by the astronauts during the spacewalk were extreme temperatures and radiation.