Sultan Al Neyadi shares timelapse video of his first spacewalk, says he is humbled by the experience
- 02 May 2023
Gulf Today, Staff Reporter
Emirati astronaut Sultan Al Neyadi made history as the first Arab astronaut to complete a spacewalk on the International Space Station.
The accomplishment marks an important step forward for the Arab world's participation in space exploration.
Al Neyadi shared a video on Twitter, “After completing my first spacewalk, I am humbled by the experience. Here’s a time-lapse capturing one of my most surreal moments on the ISS. Thank you to everyone for the unwavering support. Onward to new frontiers.”
The historic first Arab spacewalk lasted 7.01 hours in the vacuum of space on the starboard side of the International Space Station’s truss structure, accomplishing two key objectives.
One of the objectives of the Extravehicular Activity (EVA), undertaken by Neyadi along with Nasa Flight Engineer Stephen Bowen, was to work on a series of preparatory tasks which involved routing power cables, which was successfully concluded.
These cable works were completed as a precursor to the installation of the Space Station's fourth roll-out solar array, known as the International Space Station Roll-Out Solar Array (iROSA), which is scheduled to be delivered on the upcoming SpaceX Dragon cargo mission.
The next objective was to retrieve a crucial Radio Frequency Group (RFG) unit. This communications antenna, or RFG will stay bolted on the station for now due to the difficulty of removing it.
