The UAE has selected astronaut Sultan Al Neyadi for a six-month mission to the International Space Station in 2023, the UAE’s The National newspaper reported on July 25 local time. Sultan, who has been training for four years, will lift off on a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket from the Kennedy Space Center in Florida in the spring of 2023.
UAE President Mohammed took to social media to congratulate Sultan on becoming the first Arab astronaut who will live and work on the International Space Station for six months. Mohammed said the historic milestone builds on the UAE’s burgeoning space program.
Sultan Al-Neyadi, 41, served as a cyber security engineer in the UAE military. The UAE conducted the astronaut selection in 2018 and Sultan was selected from 4,000 candidates.
