What’s Emirati astronaut Sultan AlNeyadi reading at ISS?

Taking a break from his busy science experiments, UAE astronaut Sultan AlNeyadi shared what he is reading aboard the orbiting International Space Station (ISS).

Tweeting a photo of him inside the Cupola (ISS’s observatory module) on Saturday, AlNeyadi said: “One of the comics I read on the ISS is that of Tintin — a visionary series that was originally written in the 1950s that dreamt of space travel even before humanity took its first leap into orbit.”

The photo does not only give a glimpse of what AlNeyadi is doing on his free time, it’s also a nostalgic throwback to what inspired him to become a space traveller.

In a previous interview — back in February — while he was preparing for his flight to the ISS, AlNeyadi spoke about his “love for space cartoons and heroes going to other planets".

His dream of going to space started when he was a young boy living in the city of Al Ain. “In the 80s, we did not have much light pollution. I could see the Milky Way, the stars. I also loved watching space cartoons and heroes going to other planets. That probably was the spark that started everything — thinking about going to space and travelling to other planets.”

And now, AlNeyadi is the first Arab astronaut on a long-duration space mission.

Other works done by AlNeyadi over the past months include conducting air sampling test to make sure that the air quality is not contaminated in the spacecraft, working on experiments that may aid in better understanding of neurodegenerative diseases and potentially contribute to the development of advanced materials, and experiments on retina to understand how microgravity affects eyes during long duration missions.