Two astronauts from Saudi Arabia, including the first Saudi woman, will lift off from Florida on May 8 for a private mission to the International Space Station (ISS), officials from Axiom Space and NASA said Thursday.
Rayyanah Barnawi, a breast cancer researcher, will be the first Saudi woman she will enter Space and is joined on the mission by fellow Saudi Arabian Ali Al-Qarni, a fighter pilot.
Also on board is Peggy Whitson, a former NASA Astronaut who will make her fourth flight to ISSand John Shoffner, a Tennessee businessman who will serve as the pilot.
Take off from Axiom Mission 2 (Ax-2) on board a SpaceX The Falcon 9 rocket is scheduled for May 8 at 10:43 p.m. Eastern Time (08:13 a.m. IST on May 9) from the Kennedy Space Center at Cape Canaveral, Axiom Space and NASA officials said in a briefing to to give a preview of the flight.
The crew of four will travel to the ISS aboard a SpaceX Dragon capsule and spend 10 days aboard the orbiting space station.
The mission to the ISS is the second by Axiom Space, a private space company.
Axiom Space conducted its first private astronaut mission to the ISS in April 2022. Four astronauts spent 17 days in orbit as part of Ax-1.
The space mission with a Saudi woman is the kingdom’s latest step in brushing up on its ultra-conservative image.
But it’s not the oil-rich kingdom’s first foray into space.
In 1985, Prince Sultan bin Salman bin Abdulaziz, an Air Force pilot, took part in a US-organized space trip.
The neighboring United Arab Emirates has also taken part in space missions, and an Emirati astronaut, Sultan al-Neyadi, arrived a month ago for a six-month stay on the ISS.
