A UAE astronaut celebrates Ramadan in space, but 16 sunsets a day make fasting unlikely.

UAE astronaut Sultan Al-Neyadi is on board the International Space Station (ISS) as the Islamic world celebrates the holy month of Ramadan. Al-Neyadi arrived at the orbiting laboratory March 3 after being launched from NASA's Kennedy Space Center aboard a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket.Al-Neyadi is the first Arab astronaut to visit the ISS in six months on the mission and  second astronaut to visit the ISS from the Middle East after Hazzy Al-Mansoori in 2019. . 

 

 Ramzan or Ramadan is the ninth month of the Muslim calendar when Muslims around the world abstain from eating and drinking  from sunrise to sunset and end their fasting in the evening.After a month of fasting, Muslims celebrate Eid-ul-Fitr. But Al-Neyadi may not be able to  fast like his fellow Muslims on Earth due to his mission and the fact that he needs proper nutrition to function in microgravity. Another interesting reason is the more than a dozen sunrises and sunsets that astronauts watch every day. The ISS as we know it orbits it 16 times a day, so its inhabitants travel through 16 sunrises and 16 sunsets. 

 

 In preparation for the Crew-6 mission, Al-Neyadi told reporters during a Jan. 25 briefing  to follow a proper diet and not engage in activities that could jeopardize the mission.However, during the Q&A session,  he said he could check out the post in a few days. It should be noted that  Al-Neyadi is  not the first Muslim to visit the room during Ramadan. This record belongs to Prince Sultan bin Salman Al-Saud of Saudi Arabia, who visited the ISS on June 17, 1985 as part of  STS-51G at the end of the holy month.