A private mission to the International Space Station (ISS) organized by Axiom Space was yesterday to blast off from Florida, carrying the first two Saudi Arabian astronauts to the orbiting laboratory.
Rayyanah Barnawi, a breast cancer researcher, was to become the first Saudi Arabian woman to voyage into space and would be joined on the mission by compatriot Ali al-Qarni, a fighter pilot.
The Axiom Mission 2 crew were to take off aboard a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket from the Kennedy Space Center at Cape Canaveral at 9:37pm GMT. The team also includes Peggy Whitson, a former NASA astronaut who would be making her fourth flight to the ISS, and John Shoffner, a businessman from Tennessee who would serve as pilot.
Photo: Saudi Press Agency / handout via Reuters
They are due to spend about 10 days on board the ISS, where they should arrive at about 5:30pm GMT today.
“Being the first Saudi woman astronaut, representing the region, it’s a great pleasure and honor that I’m very happy to carry,” Barnawi told a news conference.
She added that, aside from her excitement for the research she would carry out on board, she is looking forward to sharing her experience with kids while on the station.
“Being able to see their faces when they see astronauts from their own region for the first time is very thrilling,” she said.
A career fighter pilot, al-Qarni said he has “always had the passion of exploring the unknown and just admiring the sky and the stars.”
“It is a great opportunity for me to pursue this kind of passion that I have, and now maybe just fly among the stars,” he said.
The mission is not Saudi Arabia’s first foray into space.
In 1985, Prince Sultan bin Salman bin Abdulaziz, an air force pilot, participated in a US-organized space voyage.
The space mission involving a Saudi Arabian woman is the latest move by the oil-rich Gulf kingdom, where women only gained the right to drive a few years ago, to revamp its ultraconservative image.
The kingdom established the Saudi Space Commission in 2018 and launched a program last year to send astronauts into space.
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