Sultan AlNeyadi to begin his return to Earth soon, NASA announces date

Image credit: WAM

UAE astronaut Sultan AlNeyadi will depart from the International Space Station (ISS) and begin his journey to Earth on September 1.

NASA announced the Emirati astronaut’s return date on Thursday.

AlNeyadi will be brought back aboard the SpaceX Dragon spacecraft which recently docked at the ISS.

NASA said, “The crew’s SpaceX Dragon spacecraft, named Endeavour, will undock from the space station no earlier than Friday, September 1, splashing down off the coast of Florida.”

Our #Crew6 astronauts have been living and working on the @Space_Station for nearly six months—now, they’re about to come home!

We’ll talk with them from space on Wednesday, August 23. Share your questions for the crew with #AskNASA: https://t.co/cJ2vh8eVqu pic.twitter.com/vdlb1aAg4n

— NASA (@NASA) August 16, 2023

Sultan AlNeyadi’s space mission

The UAE astronaut and the other crew members will come back to Earth after completing a six-month space mission aboard the ISS.

NASA’s statement read, “The crew has been living and working aboard the station since docking on March 3, 2023. During the mission, the crew contributed to hundreds of experiments and technology demonstrations, including student robotic challenges, plant genetics, and human health in microgravity to prepare for exploration beyond low Earth orbit and to benefit life on Earth.”

AlNeyadi was part of Crew-6, the sixth crew rotation mission with SpaceX for the agency’s Commercial Crew Program.

“Regular commercial crew rotation missions enable NASA to continue the important research and technology investigations taking place aboard the station. Such research benefits people on Earth and lays the groundwork for future human exploration through the agency’s Artemis missions, which will send astronauts to the Moon to prepare for future expeditions to Mars,” added NASA’s statement.