UAE astronaut returns to Earth after six months from space station

UAE astronaut Sultan Al Nayadi has returned safely to Earth after a six-month stay in the International Space Station (ISS).

He was also accompanied by NASA astronauts Stephen Bowen and Woody Hoberg and Russian cosmonaut Andrey Fedyaev on the Crew-6 mission.

NASA and SpaceX teams signaled the departure of the Crew-6 mission from the space station on Sunday. His SpaceX capsule parachuted into the Atlantic Ocean off the coast of Florida on Monday morning.

SpaceX took to social media account X to ‘congratulate’ the astronauts by ‘confirming Dragon’s ocean landing’.

The astronauts’ return to Earth was delayed by a day due to bad weather. SpaceX had sent replacement astronauts a week earlier.

Later this month, the crew will change again and two Russian and one American astronauts will return to Earth after a long-awaited return, a year since.

The astronauts had to launch a new craft due to a coolant leak in their Soyuz capsule, doubling their stay.

During crew rotations, seven astronauts remain on the space station.

The Mohammed Bin Rashid Space Center (MBRSC) announced on Saturday morning that Sultan Al Nayadi’s return from the International Space Station has been delayed due to bad weather conditions.

Sultan Al-Niyadi, the first Arab astronaut to go on a long-duration space mission and walk in space, will undergo several days of medical tests, evaluations and a mission debrief in the United States before returning to the UAE.