Sultan Al Neyadi gets spacesuit ready for historic spacewalk on Friday

The Emirati is set to become the first Arab astronaut to perform a spacewalk

Sultan Al Neyadi gets his spacesuit ready for his historic spacewalk on Friday. Photo: Mohammed bin Rashid Space Centre

UAE astronaut Sultan Al Neyadi is getting his spacesuit ready for a spacewalk on Friday.

He will venture outside the International Space Station with one of his Nasa colleagues, Stephen Bowen, on a six-and-a-half hour maintenance exercise.

The assignment will make Dr Al Neyadi, 41, the first Arab astronaut to perform a spacewalk.

On Monday, he wore a set of virtual reality goggles on Monday as he trained for a variety of unlikely rescue scenarios should things go awry during the spacewalk.

Nasa said the two astronauts had spent Tuesday configuring their spacesuits, apart from organising the tools they will use during the exercise and inspecting the tethers that will keep them safely attached to the ISS.

"The two spacewalkers will spend about six and a half hours in the vacuum of space, continuing the process of upgrading the station’s power generation system," the US space agency said.

Nasa astronauts Woody Hoburg and Frank Rubio will assist the pair in getting into and out of their spacesuits, and also monitor their spacewalk.

Dr Al Neyadi and Mr Bowen will venture outside the ISS at about 5.15pm GST, when their spacesuits will be switched on to battery power.

What will they do during the spacewalk?

The duo will carry out several tasks during the mission. Their first major job will be to retrieve foot restraints from different parts of the space station's exterior.

These restraints will be stowed away or placed at other parts of the station so that astronauts can use them during future spacewalks.

They will then prepare a part of the ISS for a future solar array that will be installed during a spacewalk later this year.

Dr Al Neyadi will also retrieve a radio frequency unit that will eventually be sent back to Earth for repairs.

The unit has a multithermal insulation tent over it, so he will spend some of his time removing that.

Mr Bowen will be assisting in removing the hardware and will be carried to the voltage side of the radio frequency unit by the space station's robotic arm, where he will use a drill to unscrew the bolts to finally remove the hardware from the station.

Are they ready for the daring task?

Dr Al Neyadi completed an extensive training programme at Nasa that prepared him for the spacewalk.

The UAE astronaut spent hours beneath one of the world's largest indoor swimming pools at a Nasa complex that simulates a microgravity environment.

The 12m-deep pool is located in the Neutral Buoyancy Laboratory at the Sonny Carter Training Facility in Houston, Texas.

Operational since 1995, it has served not only Americans but astronauts whose space agencies have partnerships with Nasa, including those from Europe, Japan, Canada and, most recently, the UAE.

Astronauts wear their extravehicular activity suits, which weigh 127kg, while training under water.

Mr Bowen is experienced in spacewalks, having performed seven of them in previous missions.