Sultan Al Neyadi (Arabic: ) is an Emirati astronaut and one of the United Arab Emirates’ first two astronauts, along with Hazza Al Mansouri.
Who is Sultan al-Neyadi?
Sultan Al Neyadi was born in Um Ghafa, an outlying district of Al Ain. His grandfather’s residence was where he spent his youth. He attended Um Ghafa Primary Boys School as well as Um Ghafa Secondary School. His father was a member of the UAE Armed Forces.He is an avid practitioner of Brazilian jiu-jitsu and started training in the sport in 2016.
Sultan joined the UAE Armed Forces after graduating from high school. He got a BSc (Hons) in Electronics and Communications Engineering from the University of Brighton in 2004. Following his selection as one of the first two Emirati astronauts, university vice-chancellor Debra Humphris stated, “We are so proud of our graduate and will be watching his endeavours as an astronaut with great interest.”
He returned to the UAE and spent a year at Zayed Military College. He was a communications engineer in the UAE Armed Forces.
He moved to Australia in 2008 to pursue a master’s degree in Information and Networks Security at Griffith University, where he returned in 2011 to earn a PhD in Data Leakage Prevention Technology.
Astronaut career
Following a series of mental and physical tests in the UAE and Russia, Al Neyadi was one of two people chosen from 4,022 candidates to become the first Emirati astronauts.[5] At the Mohammed bin Rashid Space Centre, he completed the UAE Astronaut Programme.
“We announced today our first astronauts to the International Space Station: Hazza Al Mansouri and Sultan Al Nayadi,” UAE Prime Minister Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum tweeted on September 3, 2018. Hazza and Sultan are representative of all young Arabs and the top of the UAE’s objectives.”
It was later announced that Al Mansouri would fly the first mission, with Al Neyadi as his backup. This means that Al Mansouri prepared to become the first person from the UAE to fly in space, while Al Neyadi prepared to step in and fly the mission if anything happened to Al Mansouri that would jeopardise his ability to fly the mission. Al Mansouri embarked on Soyuz MS-15 on September 25, 2019, for an eight-day mission on the International Space Station before returning to Earth on October 3, 2019.
The MBRSC and Roscosmos are in talks to fund a six-month ISS voyage for a UAE crew member, which would be the Arab World’s first long-duration space mission. Al Neyadi is the obvious choice for the mission.[8] However, in April 2022, MBRSC stated that it has purchased a seat from Axiom Space for a UAE astronaut to go to the ISS on NASA’s crew rotation trip, SpaceX Crew-6. Al Neyadi was formally given this seat in July and will reach space for the first time in March 2023. Al Neyadi became the first Arab to do a spacewalk on April 28, 2023.
