Astronaut Sultan Alneyadi sees 16 sunsets daily on the space station. How will he observe Ramadan?

CNN ^ | Wed March 22, 2023 | Jackie Wattles

[nickcarraway]

For centuries, a setting sun has signaled the end of fasting rituals on holidays such as Ramadan and Yom Kippur, a cue to tuck into a delicious meal after a full day of abstaining from food and drink. But what if the sun’s clockwork were to suddenly change, as it does for astronauts riding aboard the International Space Station? The orbiting laboratory whips around the Earth at about 17,000 miles per hour (27,600 kilometers per hour), giving passengers 16 sunrises and sunsets each day.

It’s a question astronaut Sultan Alneyadi has been contending with since his arrival at the space station on March 3. He’s one of fewer than a dozen Muslim astronauts who have traveled to space, and at the end of his mission in about five months, he will have been the first astronaut from the United Arab Emirates to complete a long-duration stay on the floating laboratory.

During his stay, Muslims on Earth will observe the month of Ramadan — a time of fasting, prayer and reflection that runs from the evening of March 22 to April 21. There will also be two Muslim festivals — Eid al-Fitr, which marks the end of Ramadan, and Eid al-Adha, a celebration of the annual pilgrimage that Muslims make to Mecca, the holy land in Saudi Arabia, that begins June 28.

[vpintheak]

A real genius that one. He had to have some kind of charisma though. How else would a hallucinating drug addict pedophile get so many people to follow him?