Astronaut Sultan Al Neyadi poses for a photograph.

Syed Shayaan Bakht, Gulf Today

Emirati astronaut Sultan Al Neyadi was in a live question-answer session with His Highness Sheikh Mohammed Bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Vice President, Prime Minister and Ruler of Dubai, from International Space Station on Monday.

The 10-minute-long session covered a host of topics related to Neyadi and space station.

Sheikh Mohammed asked: What are the experiments you are conducting at ISS?

Neyadi said, “Yes, Your Highness, Today we have a schedule. Our group will handle all the tasks and throughout the coming six months we will conduct scientific experiments. We have a large number of scientific experiments that we will carry out on behalf of Nasa and UAE, and also we are subjects of the experiments in microgravity.

Some day, people will go to the moon and Mars. We need to know how our body reacts in space and microgravity.

We will monitor the results on daily basis.”

Sheikh Mohammed: Are you getting used to the ISS by now?

Neyadi: Your Highness, I am coping up with microgravity. I am still learning, hopefully, will get better in the coming days.”

Sheikh Mohammed: Congratulations Sultan, May God bless you.

Neyadi: Thank you, Your Highness, I was very please to have this call with you. Thank you.  

Sheikh Mohammed: When you return to earth, do you have difficulty walking around?

Neyadi: Yes, Your Highness, It is one of the difficult things. We need up to two weeks to get used to walking again.

It is very difficult to walk at once. So we have to rehabilitate and train again to walk on earth.
 
A MBR space centre staff said that a whole team has been formed to monitor Neyadi’s activity and health.

In the coming days, UAE leaders will share videos and have live telecast to educate children on space activities and encourage them to join the space programme.

Sultan is a flight engineer for Expedition 69.

The mission, dubbed Crew-6 will include a series of experiments and research, as well as important scientific findings about outer space.

During the mission, Sultan will conduct numerous in-depth and advanced scientific experiments as part of the UAE Astronaut Programme, which will train and prepare a team of Emirati astronauts before sending them into space to carry out various scientific missions.

In preparation for the mission, Al Neyadi began his training on Sept.3, 2018, at the Yuri Gagarin Cosmonaut Training Centre at Star City in Moscow, based on an agreement with Roscosmos.

He also received training in Houston in Texas, and Cologne in Germany, as part of partnership agreements with major space agencies, including NASA, ESA, and JAXA.

Al Neyadi was born on May 23, 1981, in Umm Ghafa, 30 kilometers southeast of Al Ain, in Abu Dhabi, where he received primary and secondary education.
He excelled in his education, following his father’s footsteps, who served in the military. He joined the armed forces and was assigned to study Communications Engineering.

He began his higher education in the UK, and received a bachelor’s degree of Science in Electronics and Communications Engineering from the University of Brighton in the UK. He returned to the UAE and began serving for the Armed Forces.