First Saudi astronauts to blast off in private mission to ISS
Rayyanah Barnawi, the first female Arab astronaut, is also on the mission.
Two Saudi astronauts will travel for the first time on a private mission to the International Space Station (ISS) to conduct a number of experiments, the official Saudi Press Agency (SPA) reported.
Rayyanah Barnawi, the first female Arab astronaut and breast cancer researcher, and fighter pilot Ali al-Qarni will take off Sunday in a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket from the Kennedy Space Center at Cape Canaveral, Florida.
Arriving at the ISS on Monday, the duo will join Peggy Whitson, a former NASA astronaut, and American pilot John Shoffner on a mission organized by the private space company Axiom Space.
“Being the first Saudi female astronaut to represent the region is a great pleasure and an honor that I gladly bear,” Barnawi told reporters at a recent press conference.
For al-Qarni, the mission is also a long-realized passion.
“It’s a great opportunity for me to pursue this kind of passion that I have, and now…fly among the stars,” he said.
According to SPA, the team will conduct 14 experiments focused on “human research, cell science and cloud seeding experiments in the microgravity environment”.
Saudi Arabia’s involvement in the mission is also to expand space science education in the kingdom. According to SPA, male and female Saudi students will participate in scientific experiments on the ISS.
Barnawi said she looks forward to sharing her experience with Saudi youth.
“It’s very exciting to be able to see their faces when they see astronauts from their own region for the first time,” she said.
The mission is part of Saudi Arabia’s Vision 2030, a reform program that hopes to reduce the country’s dependence on oil and create jobs for young Saudis.
In 2018, Saudi Arabia established the Saudi Space Commission and last year launched a program to send astronauts into space.
The kingdom’s history in space dates back to 1985, when Prince Sultan bin Salman bin Abdulaziz Al Saud, an Air Force pilot, took part in a space tour organized by the US.
The region has been working on innovations in the sector in recent years.
In 2019, Hazzaa al-Mansoori from the UAE became the first Arab to reach the ISS. Last month, UAE astronaut Sultan al-Neyadi became the first Arab to conduct a spacewalk.
The ISS – a rare example of cooperation between Russia and the West – has been orbiting the Earth since 1998 at a speed of about 28,000 km per hour.