Astronaut Sultan Al Neyadi To Speak To Dubai Ruler Sheikh Mohammed From ISS

UAE astronaut Sultan Al Neyadi will speak to Vice President Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid from the International Space Station (ISS) on Tuesday, with their conversation being broadcast live on the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) TV at 4.50 p.m. UAE time.

The Crew-6, which included Al Neyadi, Roscosmos cosmonaut Andrey Fedyaev, and NASA astronauts Woody Hoburg and Stephen Bowen, arrived at the ISS on March 3, about 25 hours after the Falcon 9 rocket had blasted off from the Kennedy Space Center in Florida, the National News reported.

Their successful arrival at the modular space station marked the beginning of Al Neyadi's six-month space mission.

In a statement after their arrival, Dubai Crown Prince Sheikh Hamdan bin Mohammed took to Twitter to congratulate Al Neyadi on his achievement.

"All the Emirates and Arabs stand with you as you begin your mission from inside the International Space Station," he tweeted. "We were counting the seconds and we were looking forward to recording a new achievement that carries Zayed's ambition," he added.

After being welcomed by the crew members of the ISS Expedition 68, including NASA astronauts Frank Rubio, Nicole Mann, and Josh Cassada; Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency astronaut Koichi Wakata; and Roscosmos cosmonauts Sergey Prokopyev, Dmitri Petelin, and Anna Kikina, the Crew-6 received their initial orientation before settling for sleep in the Crew Alternate Sleep Accommodation.

The Crew-6 will spend the next several days doing orientation tasks to familiarize themselves with the ISS. The Crew-6 will also take part in data collection in the next few days to see how their bodies adapt to their new environment.

After the orientation duties and handover, the astronauts of the ISS Expedition 68, also called "Crew-5," will undock and head back to Earth.

The Crew-6 will conduct at least 200 experiments assigned by NASA during their time on the ISS.

They will also conduct 19 other experiments involving universities in the UAE, in which they will broadcast live streams and pre-recorded videos each week to students in the country as part of the new educational project launched by the Mohammed bin Rashid Space Center in partnership with the Emirates Literature Foundation.