Emirati astronaut Sultan Al Neyadi sticks a photo of himself with his father and Sheikh Mohamed on a window in the International Space Station. SULTAN AL NEYADI/TWITTER

As UAE residents shared Father’s Day tributes on Wednesday (June 21), Emirati astronaut Sultan Al Neyadi made his message literally out of this world with a tribute from space. Aboard the International Space Station, Al Neyadi posted a photo of himself with UAE President Sheikh Mohamed bin Zayed Al Nahyan and his own father, Saif. The photo was placed on one of the windows in an observation area of the station overlooking the 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,” Al Neyadi wrote on Twitter. “To my inspiration, my dad Saif Al Neyadi, thank you for being my guiding light,” he said in his tribute. Al Neyadi met with Sheikh Mohamed last year ahead of his space mission. The Emirati astronaut arrived at the space station on March 3 to embark on the Arab world’s first and longest space mission. He has since become the first Arab to perform a spacewalk. Al Neyadi and his three colleagues will return to Earth in late August, after completing a nearly six-month mission on the ISS, according to NASA.

Sheikh Mohamed’s Father’s Day message

Meanwhile, Sheikh Mohamed also shared his own Father's Day message earlier on Wednesday. The UAE leader asked his 4.9 million followers on Twitter for their thoughts on who they dedicate Father’s Day to. Many replied with a tribute to Sheikh Zayed bin Sultan Al Nahyan, Sheikh Mohamed’s father and the founding father of the UAE. Sheikh Zayed was the first president of the UAE from 1971 until his death in 2004. ICA/Expat Media
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