Look: UAE astronaut suits up ahead of 6-month mission to International Space Station

UAE astronaut Sultan AlNeyadi has been pictured with his spacesuit on — months before his long-term mission to the International Space Station (ISS). The Emirati astronaut will be part of a Nasa mission that will take off in the spring of 2023 and spend six months on the ISS.

“As part of the preparations for Nasa’s SpaceX Crew-6 … mission to the ISS, the crew visited SpaceX headquarters in California and appeared in their spacesuits for the first time,” the Mohammed Bin Rashid Space Centre tweeted on Wednesday.

The crew include mission specialists Al Neyadi and Andrey Fedyaev; pilot William Hoburg (Nasa) and commander Stephen Bowen (Nasa).

The MBRSC shared another photo that showed the suited up astronauts sharing a light moment:

With the mission, the UAE will become the 11th country in history to send a long-term mission to space — a milestone achievement considering that the country is relatively new in the sector.