Sultan Al Neyadi shares 'awe-inspiring' photo of Dubai at night from space

Image shows The Palm, Jumeirah Village Circle and Jebel Ali

The photo shows Palm Jumeirah, Jebel Ali Industrial area and large parts of residential areas in Dubai. Sultan Al Neyadi

UAE astronaut Sultan Al Neyadi has shared an image of Dubai at night from space.

The photo shows The Palm Jumeirah, Jebel Ali and residential areas in Dubai, including the distinctive Jumeirah Village Circle.

Dr Al Neyadi posted the picture on Twitter with the MyDubai hashtag. “Dubai shines almost as bright as the stars up here,” he wrote.

Sheikh Hamdan bin Mohammed, Crown Prince of Dubai, shared the photo on his Twitter account. It highlights many of the country's successes, he said.

“An awe-inspiring photograph of Dubai taken by Emirati astronaut Sultan Al Neyadi from the space station paints a picture of the nation's extraordinary achievements both on Earth and beyond,” Sheikh Hamdan wrote.

Currently on a six-month mission, Dr Al Neyadi last week made history by becoming the first Arab to perform a spacewalk.

He completed the six-and-a-half-hour spacewalk with his American colleague Stephen Bowen. The duo carried out two crucial tasks during their maintenance assignment including preparing a structure on the station’s exterior for a future solar array installation.

A live stream by Nasa showed the astronauts tied only to a tether as they floated in the darkness of space doing intricate repair work while wearing a bulky spacesuit.

This weekend, Dr Al Neyadi will exit the space station again to move the Dragon capsule that carried them to the ISS to a new docking point to make way for cargo craft due to arrive next month.

The move will involve the astronauts donning their spacesuits to enter the capsule before carefully flying it a short distance to its new docking position.

It will be the latest project in what has been a busy time in space for Dr Al Neyadi.