The United Arab Emirates’ (UAE) astronaut Sultan al-Neyadi has shared a rare video of Saudi Arabia’s Cities of Makkah and Madinah from the International Space Station (ISS) from an altitude of about 450 kilometers.
In a Tweet on the night of 27th Ramadan (April 17), Sultan al-Neyadi shared the footage showing Makkah’s Masjid Al Haram and Madinah’s Masjid Al Nabawi lit up and Saudi’s Arabia’s Grand Mosque glowing in the dark.
من محطة الفضاء الدولية،
إهداء لعيال سلمان في هذه الليالي المباركة 🌙⭐️
إهداء لبلاد الحرمين الشريفين، مهبط الوحي وأرض الرسالة، المملكة العربية السعودية. 🇸🇦 pic.twitter.com/3OQTg4CgXb— Sultan AlNeyadi (@Astro_Alneyadi) April 17, 2023
“A gift for Salman’s children on these blessed nights,” the astronaut called the footage, he shared on Twitter.
“A dedication to the Country of the Two Holy Mosques, the landing site o revelation and the land of the message, the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia,” he wrote.Sultan al-Niyadi is currently on the International Space Station on a six-month space mission of the American space research agency NASA.
The UAE astronaut will be the first Arab to complete a spacewalk when he exits the ISS on April 28.
Meanwhile, the total number of worshipers and Umrah performers in Masjid Al Haram reached more than 2.6 million on the 27th night of Ramadan.