The United Arab Emirates celebrated after Emirati astronaut Sultan Alneyadi splashed down to Earth following six months in space, a milestone for its growing space program.

The four-member crew — three astronauts and a cosmonaut — launched in March and conducted more than 200 experiments. They also performed spacewalks and did maintenance on the orbiting outpost.

Since the first days of the space program, astronauts wear a special patch specific to each mission. A small North Carolina company has designed them all since the Apollo lunar launches.