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Look: UAE astronaut's funny response as launch of 6-month space mission is delayed

AlNeyadi also reshared a post by Dubai Crown Prince Sheikh Hamdan, which highlighted how the country's ambitions remain high despite the scrub

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Emirati astronaut Sultan AlNeyadi and his Crew-6 mates remain positive despite their mission getting called off with less than three minutes to go for liftoff on Monday.

Nasa astronauts Stephen Bowen and Warren “Woody” Hoburg, UAE astronaut Al Neyadi, and Roscosmos cosmonaut Andrey Fedyaev were strapped in and ready to blast off when the mission was scrubbed due to a ground systems issue at T-minus 2.30 minutes.

AlNeyadi took the mission launch delay in the stride and even joked about it. Taking to Twitter, he said: "I promised my kids to return soon, (but) I didn't mean this soon!"

He added that the crew is safe and their spirits are high.

"A launch scrub is one of the things that we are trained to do, as crew safety is always a priority," he posted.

Accompanying the post was a photo of a fully suited up AlNeyadi with his children moments before boarding a Tesla to go to the launchpad on Monday.

AlNeyadi has six children and is known to be very close to his family. They have been at the launch site since Friday.

The astronaut also reshared a post by Dubai Crown Prince Sheikh Hamdan bin Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, which highlighted how the UAE's ambitions remain high despite the launch being delayed.

The next launch attempt for Crew-6 is on Thursday, March 2, at 9.34am (UAE time), "pending resolution of the technical issue that prevented Monday’s launch".

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• UAE astronaut's space mission: Nasa announces next launch attempt date

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