Sultan Al Neyadi delivers Father's Day tribute from space

Emirati astronaut pays tribute to UAE leaders and his own father in message

Sultan Al Neyadi shared a Father's Day tribute from space, featuring President Sheikh Mohamed and the astronaut's father. Sultan Al Neyadi / Twitter

Emirati astronaut Sultan Al Neyadi paid a glowing Father's Day tribute from the International Space Station on Wednesday.

Dr Al Neyadi hailed the contributions of UAE Founding Father, the late Sheikh Zayed bin Sultan Al Nahyan, and President Sheikh Mohamed, as well as his own father, Saif, who he described as his “guiding light”.

The history-making space traveller shared an uplifting message on social media, accompanied by a photograph of himself with Sheikh Mohamed and his father.

This picture was placed on one of the windows of the Cupola, an observation area of the station, looking down on Earth.

“Today we honour the father of our nation, Sheikh Zayed, whose dreams we're privileged to live and salute our inspirational leader, President Sheikh Mohamed, whose footsteps we strive to follow,” Dr Al Neyadi wrote on Twitter.

“To my inspiration, my dad Saif Al Neyadi, thank you for being my guiding light,” Dr Al Neyadi said, in a message which concluded with a Happy Father's Day hashtag.

Father's Day is celebrated in the UAE on June 21, coinciding with International Father's Day.

Dr Al Neyadi had previously told of the meeting with Sheikh Mohamed, captured in the photograph on display 400km above Earth.

“Thank you, Your Highness, your visit is the absolute best motivation for me and all the people who work in the space sector in the UAE,” he tweeted in September.

“We promise you to do our best in representing our nation in the future space missions.”

Dr Al Neyadi, 42, arrived at the orbiting outpost on March 3 to carry out the Arab world's first long-duration space mission.

The Al Ain native has since become the first Arab to perform a spacewalk, carried out crucial science investigations for researchers around the world and conducted several live calls with school pupils and space enthusiasts.

Sheikh Mohamed shared his own Father's Day message earlier on Wednesday.

The UAE leader posed a question to his 4.9 million followers on Twitter, asking for their thoughts on the day, accompanied by a world Father's Day hashtag.

Sheikh Mohamed's short message, which attracted a large response from users of the online platform, translates into English as asking whose day it is.

The post has received more than 1.3 million views and close to 10,000 likes since being published shortly after 9am.

Sultan Al Neyadi in space - in pictures