Dubai: Ambitions are soaring high once again, with the lift-off of the UAE astronaut Sultan Al Neyadi to the International Space Station for the historic ‘longest Arab mission in space’ slated for this morning.

After a scrubbed launch of NASA’s SpaceX Crew-6 mission on Monday, Al Neyadi, 41, and the other three crew members are scheduled to blast off at 9.34am here today. A SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket is set to launch the Crew-6 Dragon spacecraft named ‘Endeavour’ for the Expedition 69 to ISS. The launch is taking place at the Launch Complex 39A (LC-39A) at NASA’s Kennedy Space Centre in Florida, US.

Al Neyadi carries the ambitions of the country’s founding father the Late Sheikh Zayed bin Sultan Al Nahyan and hopes and dreams of all the Emiratis and other Arabs.

Upon the completion of the UAE Mission 2, the country will rank 11th globally among countries that have successfully achieved a long-duration mission at the ISS. It will also become the first Arab country to hit this milestone. The UAE is also the first non-ISS partner country to participate in a long-haul ISS mission. Al Neyadi, primary crew and mission specialist, is joined by two NASA astronauts from the US, Stephen Bowen (commander) and Warren Hoburg (pilot), and Russian cosmonaut Andrey Fedyaev who is also a mission specialist.

NASA’s live broadcast of the mission begins at 5.45am here. Gulf News brings you all the live updates about the mission here and on our social media channels. Stay tuned.