The second astronaut from the United Arab Emirates remains to be adjusting to life off the planet, after rocketing to the Worldwide Area Station final week

ByMARCIA DUNN AP Aerospace Author

CAPE CANAVERAL, Florida — The second astronaut from the United Arab Emirates remains to be adjusting to life off the planet, after rocketing to the Worldwide Area Station final week.

“I’m nonetheless coping. I’m nonetheless studying,” Sultan al-Neyadi mentioned Tuesday, however added that he hopes to enhance within the coming days.

He is the second UAE astronaut to fly in house and the primary from the Arab world to be assigned to a protracted spaceflight — the others stayed for a couple of week. He’ll be up there till September.

Al-Neyadi assured Dubai’s ruler in a video name Tuesday that he and the remainder of his crew are in good health. However he joked that the small plush astronaut toy that he took up could also be coping higher with microgravity than he’s.

“I’m grateful to God you could have reached the Worldwide Area Station and thank God to your security,” Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, who additionally serves because the nation’s prime minister and vp, mentioned from the house middle named after him.

SpaceX launched al-Neyadi, a Russian cosmonaut and two NASA astronauts on their six-month mission final Thursday.

The primary UAE astronaut, Hazzaa al-Mansoori took half in Tuesday’s transient video chat from Dubai. Al-Neyadi’s astronaut toy, nicknamed Suhail, Arabic for the good star Canopus, additionally accompanied al-Mansoori on his 2019 house station mission.

“Hopefully, folks will comply with within the footstep of my brother Hazzaa and my footsteps,” al-Neyadi mentioned, the flags for the UAE and its house middle hanging behind him. “That is what we hope for.”

___ The Related Press Well being and Science Division receives assist from the Howard Hughes Medical Institute’s Science and Instructional Media Group. The AP is solely accountable for all content material.


Source link