On Wednesday, UAE astronaut Sultan Al Neyadi said he was excited about the historic achievement of India landing a spacecraft on the surface of the Moon.
Al Neyadi said he was having lunch when Chandrayaan-3 ( which means ” Mooncraft ” in Sanskrit) made a soft landing on the Moon’s south pole at 4.34 pm (UAE time), while addressing international media through a news conference from the International Space Station(ISS).
Moreover, he was the first Arab astronaut. During the space mission’s duration, he informed his team of 6 colleges and proudly said, “They(India) made it.”
Al Neyadi stated, ” It was surreal having a man-made object landing on the Moon.” He added, ” It was amazing for a space-faring nation like India to accomplish a first-of-its-kind mission.”
India has joined the United States, the former Soviet Union, and China among the space-faring countries that landed a spacecraft on the Moon. Moreover, India became the first state to reach the unexplored lunar south pole.
AlNeyadi stated, ” I believe this is only the beginning for India, and I hope many nations will follow in their footsteps.”
However, AlNeyadi, who has been living and doing scientific experiments aboard the ISS for around six months, also mentions the UAE’s efforts to reach the Moon’s surface.
Moreover, Al Neyadi mentioned the achievement of India as a collective effort, saying, ” It’s essential to emphasize the global effort. We can’t go alone. We always emphasized the shared efforts towards achieving one goal”.
