The United Arab Emirates is celebrating the return of considered one of its astronauts from the Worldwide Area Station, the place he spent months — and took a step within the UAE’s house ambitions.
DANIEL ESTRIN, HOST:
Early this morning, 4 astronauts splashed down off the coast of Florida after six months on the Worldwide Area Station. One in every of them is from the United Arab Emirates. Just a few individuals from the Center East have gone to house, and his mission is being hailed as a milestone for the area. NPR’s Aya Batrawy joins us now from Dubai. Hello, Aya.
AYA BATRAWY, BYLINE: Hey, Daniel.
ESTRIN: Hey. So inform us about this astronaut.
BATRAWY: So Sultan Al Neyadi – he’s an engineer with a Ph.D. who spent 20 years within the army. And at 42, he is additionally a father of six. So I can solely think about what the mom of his children felt like all that point with these children on her personal.
ESTRIN: Oh, man.
BATRAWY: However this can be a tribal, tight-knit society, and so they actually rally round one another and their very own. And his mission, it is being seen as a historic second of delight for this nation and actually for the area. And you may sense the thrill on social media, on-line, within the native press and the UAE’s management. I imply, they’ve actually thrown their help behind him, guaranteeing he will get the publicity and the sort of consideration they really feel is worthy of this mission. And though he’s the second astronaut from the UAE to go to house, it is by far the longest mission by an Arab astronaut, many years after a Saudi prince made historical past as the primary individual from this area to go to house. Let’s take heed to a clip from Sultan Al Neyadi only a few days in the past earlier than leaving the ISS.
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SULTAN AL NEYADI: It was actually wonderful, particularly for my area. I come from a spot the place the spaceflights – human spaceflights – had been stopped for greater than 30 years, and I felt that I am accountable, obligated to point out what’s occurring with the station. I believe it is a small enhance in direction of spreading the keenness in our area.
ESTRIN: Yeah, very cool. So he spent six months in house. What are a few of the moments that stood out from his time?
BATRAWY: Nicely, look, he is had a very very savvy social media presence. He is been posting all these very cool photos from the ISS, and he is been posting and sharing all his captions in English and in Arabic, making it very accessible to individuals from this area. He was additionally up there throughout Ramadan and shared a photograph of the crescent moon, which marks the beginning of the Muslim holy month. So this, I believe, actually helped individuals join along with his, you understand, mission and see themselves in his pictures.
However there’s additionally different highlights, like he took half in one thing like 200 experiments whereas he was up there, and he donned that massive puffy white astronaut swimsuit and made a spacewalk exterior the ISS. In order that additionally marks the primary time for an Arab astronaut to try this. However one other main spotlight was he was visited aboard the ISS in Might for just a few days by two Saudi astronauts, together with the first-ever Arab girl astronaut to go to house.
ESTRIN: Yeah. I am taking a look at an image now that he took of Jerusalem, the place I’m, and it is simply ethereal. I’ve by no means seen Jerusalem like that. It is stunning. So, Aya, what’s the UAE as much as? It is such a small nation. What’s – what’s it making an attempt to do in house?
BATRAWY: So if we take a step again, this a part of the world – North Africa, the Center East, the Close to East – for lots of of years till across the thirteenth century, they had been pioneers within the fields of medication and science in what’s referred to as the Islamic Golden Age. And that may be a level of delight included in native textbooks and youngsters’s books. However, yeah, this can be a very younger and small nation. It is 50 – it is simply round 50 years previous, with an area inhabitants of simply over 1,000,000 individuals. However they have been very strategic about how they deploy their oil and gasoline wealth, together with by constructing an area program, by partnering with international locations which have very superior house packages, just like the U.S., Russia, South Korea and Japan.
They at present have a satellite tv for pc orbiting Mars and analyzing its environment, and so they plan to ship one other rover to the moon after the primary attempt failed. However I believe the message right here is evident. For those who can dream it, we’re sport to attempt. And the UAE’s leaders insist nothing is unimaginable.
ESTRIN: All proper. That is NPR’s Aya Batrawy in Dubai. Thanks, Aya.
BATRAWY: Thanks, Daniel.
(SOUNDBITE OF OATMELLO’S “FROST”)
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