UAE: Astronaut Sultan AlNeyadi Blasts off on Longest Arab Space Mission
UAE astronaut Sultan AlNeyadi, all suited and booted, made history for the Emirates as the longest Arab space mission took off after a three-day wait.
This was the second launch attempt after the first had to be scrubbed in the final two minutes of the countdown over an ‘unusual data signature’ from the Falcon-9 rocket’s ignition fluid.
The mission was given the green light on Wednesday, with 95 per cent chance of favourable weather conditions and all systems thoroughly checked.
Nasa’s Crew-6 mission to the International Space Station is blasted off on March 2 at 9.34am (UAE time) on a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket and Dragon spacecraft from Launch Complex 39A from Kennedy Space Centre in Florida. AlNeyadi, along with Nasa astronauts Stephen Bowen and Warren Hoburg and Roscosmos cosmonaut Andrey Fedyaev, will spend six months in the orbiting laboratory.
