On the International Space Station, an astronaut from the United Arab Emirates claims that Muslims are not required to fast during Ramadan.
Emirati space explorer Ruler al-Neyadi said Wednesday that he won't be expected to quick during Ramadan while on his impending space mission.
When he launches for the International Space Station (ISS) next month aboard a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket, the 41-year-old Arab astronaut will become the first to spend six months in space.
SpaceX Dragon Crew-6 will take Neyadi, NASA astronauts Stephen Bowen and Warren Hoburg, and Russian astronaut Andrey Fedyaev to the International Space Station on February 26.
Neyadi said that his situation is an exception when asked how he would observe the holy month of Ramadan, when Muslims typically fast from dawn to dusk.
Neyadi stated, “I’m in… the definition of a traveler, and we can actually break fast.” It is not required.
He stated, “Actually, fasting is not required if you’re… feeling unwell.”
“So in that regard, we are actually permitted to eat sufficient food for anything that could jeopardize the mission or possibly put the crew members in danger.”
The second citizen of the oil-rich United Arab Emirates to go into space will be Neyadi.
Hazzaa al-Mansoori spent eight days on the ISS in September 2019.
At the Johnson Space Center on Wednesday, the Russian cosmonaut and the NASA astronauts were also asked if any of the political tensions on Earth, such as those over Ukraine, had spread into space.
Bowen, a veteran of three space shuttle missions, stated, “I’ve been working and training with cosmonauts for over 20 years now and it’s always been amazing.”
“Once you get to space, there is only one crew and one vehicle, and we all want the same thing.”
The “very long history” of space cooperation between the United States and Russia was cited by Fedyaev.
The Russian cosmonaut stated, “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.”
Handover over five days NASA officials stated that they anticipate a five-day handover between the four members of Dragon Crew-5, who have been on the ISS since October.
Three astronauts are currently in the ISS as well. In December, a small meteoroid struck their Soyuz crew capsule, which was their return vehicle.
On February 20, Russia intends to return Russian cosmonauts Dmitry Petelin and Sergei Prokopyev and NASA astronaut Frank Rubio to Earth aboard an empty spacecraft.
After the meteoroid struck, the crew capsule of their Soyuz MS-22 developed a radiator coolant leak.
In September, MS-22 carried Petelin, Prokopyev, and Rubio to the ISS from the Russian-operated Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan.
In March, they were supposed to return to Earth in the same spacecraft, but their time on the International Space Station will now be extended by several months.
Since the 1960s, Russia has carried astronauts into space in the aging but dependable Soyuz capsules.
Since the beginning of the Russian offensive in Ukraine, Moscow and Washington have only rarely collaborated in space.
After the “Space Race” of the Cold War, the United States and Russia began working more together when the ISS was launched in 1998.
