Today, Sultan Al Neyadi is poised to make history as he becomes the first Arab astronaut to participate in a spacewalk during Expedition 69 at the International Space Station (ISS).
This achievement will also mark the UAE as the 10th country to perform a spacewalk on the ISS and the 261st spacewalk that has aided assembly, maintenance, and upgrades on the space station. The anticipated duration of the extravehicular activity (EVA) is approximately 6.5 hours.
Al Neyadi and NASA flight engineer Stephen Bowen will collaborate on essential tasks, making this the fourth spacewalk of the year on the ISS. The two astronauts will conduct multiple assignments, such as retrieving and relocating foot restraints for future spacewalks, retrieving a piece of communication equipment, and preparing a section of the space station for upcoming solar array installation.
They will depart from and re-enter the ISS through the Quest airlock, a pressurized chamber at the station designed for astronaut spacewalks. This chamber assists the astronauts in purging nitrogen from their bloodstream and avoiding decompression sickness while operating in the spacesuit’s low-pressure and low-oxygen environment.
One of the primary goals of the EVA is to recover an essential Radio Frequency Group unit, which is a crucial component of the S-Band communications system on the ISS. This necessary communications equipment will be returned to Earth on a SpaceX flight.
