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That wasn’t an ultra-bright shooting star darting across the night sky — it was UAE astronaut Sultan AlNeyadi coming home.
Thousands were glued to their screens on Monday as they watched AlNeyadi, along with his Crew-6 mates, splash back down to Earth after a historic six-month mission on the International Space Station (ISS). While everybody saw how the parachutes opened like jellyfish to carefully land the crew-s Dragon Spacecraft safely unto the sea, not many were able to spot them right in the sky.
American astronaut Nicole Stout perfectly captured the extraordinary spectacle in the sky. In a video she shared on social media, a fireball is seen hurtling down from up above, creating a vivid streak across the sky.
Lt-Gen Sheikh Saif bin Zayed Al Nahyan, Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Interior, thanked Stout for sharing the moment as he reposted the clip.
“From the sky of Earth.. The moments of the Dragon spacecraft that was carrying the Emirati astronaut Sultan Al Neyadi and three of his companions arrived,” Sheikh Saif wrote.
Here’s the video.
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AlNeyadi and his Crew-6 mates — Nasa astronauts Stephen Bowen and Woody Hoburg, and Roscosmos cosmonaut Andrey Fedyaev —splashed down off the coast of Jacksonville, Florida, at 8.17am (UAE time) on Monday.
After spending 186 days ins space, the Emirati astronaut is now undergoing a rehabilitation programme to get his body used to gravity. While AlNeyadi is getting the rest he needs, the UAE is gearing up for a hero’s welcome. The space traveller is slated to fly back to the country in a couple of weeks.
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