UAE astronaut says ready for space voyage

UAE astronaut Sultan Alneyadi said he was ready to launch into space to set the stage for future visits by the next generations.

Alneyadi is one of two citizens of the United Arab Emirates who contested to be  part of a NASA team preparing to take the trip to the International Space Station on Monday. Alneyadi was selected in July last year.

“Today, we fly to pave the way for the next generations,” Alneyadi tweeted.

The space adventure, which will take six months, is part of the UAE’s endeavor to lead Arabs into space in the future.

Alneyadi was selected through the UAE Astronaut Program, which aims to train and prepare a team of Emirati astronauts and send them to space for various scientific missions.

Who is Sultan Alneyadi?

“Believe in your dream, and it will come true,” he once said.

Alneyadi, 41, whose full name is Sultan Saif Hamad Alneyadi, is an IT engineer.

He used to work as the Network Security Engineer for the UAE Armed Forces. It was his dream to become a pilot and an astronaut, though in his youth he had never imagined his dream would ever come true.

•  In  2017, he joined the first batch of the UAE Astronaut Program.
•   In 2018, started exercises at Yuri Gagarin Cosmonaut Training Center in Moscow as reserve pioneer in Hazza al-Mansouri mission.
•   In 2022 Alneyadi obtained the NASA Astronaut Badge.

In a recent tweet, Alneyadi voiced gratitude to his country’s leader for allowing him the opportunity to fly into space.

“Thank you from the bottom of my heart, Your Highness. My selection as the first Arab astronaut for a long-duration mission is a great honor and responsibility that I accept with a strong desire to raise the UAE flag high in space once more,” he tweeted.