Saudi Arabia’s first-ever woman astronaut to go on a space mission this year

Saudi woman astronaut Rayyana Barnawi will join fellow Saudi Ali Al-Qarni on a 10-day mission to the International Space Station (ISS) this year.

Barnawi and Al-Qarni will fly to the ISS aboard a SpaceX Dragon spacecraft as part of a mission by the private space company Axiom Space.

The Ax-2 will be launched by a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket from Launch Complex 39A at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida.

Axiom Space carried out its first private astronaut mission to the ISS in April 2022 under which four private astronauts spent 17 days in orbit.

In 2019, Saudi’s neighbour the United Arab Emirates became the first Arab country to send one of its citizens into space.

Astronaut Hazzaa al-Mansoori spent eight days on the ISS. Another fellow Emirati, Sultan al-Neyadi, will also make a voyage to the space station in February this year.

Neyadi, fondly called “Sultan of Space”, will become the first Arab astronaut to spend six months in space when he blasts off for the ISS aboard a Falcon 9 rocket.

Notably, Saudi de facto leader Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman has been trying to shake off the kingdom’s austere image through a push for reforms.

During his regime since 2017, Saudi women have been allowed to drive and travel abroad without a male guardian. Besides, women’s proportion in the workforce has more than doubled since 2016, from 17% to 37%.

However, Saudi Arabia’s foray into space is not its first. In the oil-rich country in 1985, sent country’s royal Prince Sultan bin Salman bin Abdulaziz, an air force pilot on a US-organised mission. It became the first Arab Muslim country to travel to space.

Years later in 2018, the country set up a space program and last year launched another to send astronauts into space as part of Prince Salman’s Vision 2030 agenda for economic diversification.

Saudi woman astronaut Rayyana Barnawi will join fellow Saudi Ali Al-Qarni on a 10-day mission to the International Space Station (ISS) this year.

Barnawi and Al-Qarni will fly to the ISS aboard a SpaceX Dragon spacecraft as part of a mission by the private space company Axiom Space.

The Ax-2 will be launched by a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket from Launch Complex 39A at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida.

Axiom Space carried out its first private astronaut mission to the ISS in April 2022 under which four private astronauts spent 17 days in orbit.

In 2019, Saudi’s neighbour the United Arab Emirates became the first Arab country to send one of its citizens into space.

Astronaut Hazzaa al-Mansoori spent eight days on the ISS. Another fellow Emirati, Sultan al-Neyadi, will also make a voyage to the space station in February this year.

Neyadi, fondly called “Sultan of Space”, will become the first Arab astronaut to spend six months in space when he blasts off for the ISS aboard a Falcon 9 rocket.

Notably, Saudi de facto leader Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman has been trying to shake off the kingdom’s austere image through a push for reforms.

During his regime since 2017, Saudi women have been allowed to drive and travel abroad without a male guardian. Besides, women’s proportion in the workforce has more than doubled since 2016, from 17% to 37%.

However, Saudi Arabia’s foray into space is not its first. In the oil-rich country in 1985, sent country’s royal Prince Sultan bin Salman bin Abdulaziz, an air force pilot on a US-organised mission. It became the first Arab Muslim country to travel to space.

Years later in 2018, the country set up a space program and last year launched another to send astronauts into space as part of Prince Salman’s Vision 2030 agenda for economic diversification.