UAE astronaut’s homecoming: Thrilled AlNeyadi family, well-wishers await to meet him at US airport

Emirati astronaut Sultan AlNeyadi will be greeted by his brothers, wife, father and a ‘big group of people’ who eagerly await his return at the Ellington airport in Houston, US, post splashdown. The father of six children will meet his kids later though.

During a virtual media briefing on Sunday, shortly after the undocking of Crew 6 from the International Space Station (ISS), Salem Al Marri, Director-General of the Mohammed Bin Rashid Space Centre (MBRSC), revealed to the media: “He has family members here (Houston). His brothers, his wife, his father and there's a big group here, who’ve come. They'll be here to welcome him. He'll spend some time with him. He's ready to come back now. He of course misses his family and wants to see them.”

Al Marri also said that if ever AlNeyadi was asked to continue for another six months he was optimistic that he would receive a positive response from the astronaut.

“I think he enjoyed himself. He really did work hard. It's a very special experience. At the same time, he has his family here. They miss him, and he misses them. So, it's time to come home.”

Al Marri stated that the situation is suitable for the splashdown of the Dragon spacecraft carrying Crew 6. He also said a medical team will be there to take care of AlNeyadi as soon as he returns to Earth.

“We also have our team along with our medical team to welcome him so that he'll be very well taken care of. So, things will be good.”

While most were curious to learn as to when he returns to the UAE, Al Marri said preparations are still underway and the announcement is yet to come. “We'll announce in the coming days when we will be bringing Sultan back to the UAE. We'll be announcing his return plan and dates and everything in the coming days. I can't really announce anything now because we're still in the planning stage but we'll let you know what's happening once we get closer to it.”

Adnan AlRais, mission manager of the UAE Astronaut Programme, said: “On Monday, after the splashdown he will meet the rest of the family. But he will be back to the UAE in a couple of weeks. They will be welcoming him in Houston once he arrived.”

Astronauts take pictures with their own souvenirs on ISS

While it’s a known fact that astronauts carry souvenirs to space and Alneyadi carried a few of his precious belongings, Al Marri also highlighted that getting something from the ISS is not a common practice.

“You take pictures of your family, mementos, rings, earrings, coins, or different things that mean something to you. You take them up to space, you might take pictures with them and then bring them down. Everything that goes into the station comes down from there is documented. Taking your souvenirs up there and bringing them down is what they do.”

Elevated risks during re-entry into Earth

Meanwhile, ahead of the splashdown, Al Marri reiterated that while spaceflights are inherently a risky business, risks are assessed and decisions are made bearing in mind astronauts’ safety first.

“At the end of the day, when we look at the teams at Nasa and SpaceX, they've done this many times. They look at the weather elements. They make a visual check of the capsule to see if there's any damage on the heat shields before the landing goes ahead. So they've got a lot of experience to make sure that every system has been checked and rechecked. The crew is ready and the rescue teams are ready. There is a level of risk and it is going to be elevated during a re-entry into Earth with that tremendous amount of heat on the heat shield and then landing into the ocean,” he said.

Schedule upon return

“Throughout this mission, we had many achievements including the first spacewalk of an Arab astronaut and the longest mission for an Arab person to the ISS. We had contributions from our local community or local universities, through our researchers, scientists, and students that contributed to different aspects of this mission. We had a lot of education outreach activities, that targeted our future engineers and scientists. They will continue working with us in the future on our future space programmes. We learn a lot from this mission in terms of the human spaceflight programme, the development in science and technologies. We work with international partners so that we can contribute to the global exploration roadmap and sending human back to the Moon and eventually to Mars. This is the objective that we have for the Mars 2117 programme. So it’s a great achievement. We are going to have more astronauts participating in future missions.” he added.