Emirati astronaut Sultan al-Neyadi says he can skip fasting during Ramadan when on ISS

Emirati astronaut Sultan al-Neyadi, who is set to become the first Arab astronaut to spend six months in space, said Wednesday that he won't need to fast during Ramadan while in space.The 41-year-old will blast off for the International Space Station (ISS) next month aboard a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket.

Neyadi, NASA's Stephen Bowen and Warren Hoburg and Russia's Andrey Fedyaev are scheduled to fly to the ISS on February 26 as members of SpaceX Dragon Crew-6.

When a reporter asked Sultan al-Neyadi how does he plan to observe the holy month of Ramadan in space, he said fasting won't be compulsory for him since his situation falls under an exception.

"I'm in... the definition of a traveler, and we can actually break fast," Neyadi said. "It's not compulsory."

"Actually fasting is not compulsory if you're... feeling not well," he said.

"So in that regard, anything that can jeopardize the mission, or maybe put the crew members in a risk, we're actually allowed to eat sufficient food."

While Neyadi is the first astronaut from UAE to spend six months in space, he is actually the second national from there to go to space.

In September 2019, Hazzaa al-Mansoori spent eight days on the ISS.

Meanwhile, the American astronauts and the Russian cosmonaut mentioned how tensions between the two countries on Earth never affect their camaraderie in space.

"I've been working and training with cosmonauts for over 20 years now and it's always been amazing," said NASA's Bowen, a veteran of three space shuttle missions.

"Once you get to space, it's just one crew, one vehicle and we all have the same goal."

Fedyaev said that the two countries have a "very long history" of space cooperation.

"The life of people in space on the International Space Station is really setting a very good example for how people should be living on Earth," the Russian cosmonaut said.

Meanwhile, three astronauts whose return vehicle, a Soyuz crew capsule, was damaged by a tiny meteoroid in December, will be returning on a Russian spacecraft that it plans to send to ISS on February 20.

Their Soyuz MS-22 crew capsule sprang a radiator coolant leak after the meteoroid strike.

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