Crew-6 will launch to the International Space Station (ISS) on Monday, Feb. 27, with four astronauts on board a Crew Dragon spacecraft atop a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket. The liftoff is scheduled for 1:45 a.m. EST (0645 GMT).
The United Arab Emirates astronaut and Crew-6 member Sultan Al-Neyadi will be the first of his nation to do a space station rotation, following the first-ever Emirati astronaut flight in 2019. Also on board are NASA astronauts Warren "Woody" Hoburg, Stephen Bowen, and cosmonaut Andrey Fedyaev of the Russian space agency Roscosmos.
Sultan Al-Neyadi, 41, was one of the first two astronauts selected by the United Arab Emirates in 2017. Before becoming an astronaut, he received a Ph.D. in Information Technology, according to his International Astronautical Federation biography.
Al-Neyadi is the first UAE astronaut to fly a normal half-year ISS rotation. He told Space.com it is a "natural progression" following the eight-day space station excursion flight by Hazzaa Ali Almansoori in 2019. He added that the UAE is a signatory to the NASA-led Artemis Accords laying out rules for future human Moon exploration as well as community norms for peaceful work in space.
"It's a matter of actively being a partner of future projects," he said during a Jan. 25 Zoom interview about the work with NASA. Al-Neyadi added that the UAE's Rashid rover is expected to touch down on the Moon in April as another step to assisting with future exploration.