Thu 02 March 2023:
On Thursday, an astronaut crew headed for the International Space Station was launched by SpaceX and NASA.
Four astronauts were launched by SpaceX for a prolonged month-long stay. Just after midnight, the Falcon 9 rocket was launched from Kennedy Space Center.
According to NASA, the Crew-6 launch carried two astronauts from NASA, Mission Commander Stephen Bowen and Pilot Warren Hoburg, as well as astronauts from the United Arab Emirates (UAE), Sultan Al Neyadi, and Roscosmos, Andrey Fedyaev, who is a mission specialist for an expedition to the space station.
SpaceX launches crew of astronauts on space station mission pic.twitter.com/4SrxOngcnr
— INDEPENDENT PRESS (@IpIndependent) March 2, 2023
They are anticipated to stay on board the orbiting laboratory for about six months, conducting scientific research and maintaining the two-decade-old station.
This is the sixth crew rotation mission using the SpaceX Dragon spacecraft on a Falcon 9 rocket to the orbiting laboratory as part of the agency’s Commercial Crew Program. This Dragon is named Endeavour.
The first attempt to launch them was called off Monday at the last minute because of a clogged filter in the engine ignition system.
“Thank God, we made it to space,” Al Neyadi spoke from inside the Dragon capsule once it entered orbit, according to the Emirati National news website.
He became the fourth Arab astronaut who embarked on missions into space after Emirati Hazzaa Al Mansoori in 2019, Saudi Arabia’s Prince Sultan bin Salman in 1985 and Syrian astronaut Muhammed Faris in 1987.
“I would like to say thanks to everybody, my parents, my family, our leadership, the Mohammed bin Rashid Space Centre for their trust, and everyone who trained us got us ready for this launch,” Al Neyadi said.
Al Neyadi, who was born in 1981, enlisted in his country’s armed forces and was subsequently sent to study IT and communication engineering.
He will observe and commemorate the beginning of the holy month of Ramadan in space a few weeks from now.
In order to train and prepare a group of Emiratis to be sent on various scientific missions to space, the UAE established its astronaut program in 2017.
SOURCE: INDEPENDENT PRESS AND NEWS AGENCIES
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