Rayana Barnawi and Ali Al-Qarni took off from Kennedy Space Center in Florida aboard a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket. You will be accompanied by two other crew members.
By Le Figaro with AFP
Published on 05/21/2023 at 23:46
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The Axiom Mission. JOE SKIPPER/ Portal
A private mission organized by the company Axiom Space took off on Sunday for the International Space Station (ISS), on board were the first two Saudis to go to this flying laboratory, including a woman.
Rayana Barnawi and Ali Al-Qarni took off at 5:37 p.m. local time (11:37 p.m. France) aboard a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket from Kennedy Space Center in Florida. You will be accompanied by two other crew members. The mission will be led by Peggy Whitson, a former NASA astronaut who has been to the ISS three times. The American entrepreneur John Shoffner acts as the pilot. They will spend approximately ten days onboard the International Space Station (ISS), arriving there around 13:30 GMT (15:30 French time) on Monday.
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Improving the image of Saudi Arabia
“It is my great pleasure and honor to be the first Saudi female astronaut and to represent the region,” Rayana Barnawi, a scientist by training, said at a news conference this week. She said she looks forward to speaking to children from the ISS: “It’s very exciting to be able to see their faces when they see astronauts from their own region for the first time.”
In everyday life, Ali Al-Qarni is a fighter pilot. “I’ve always had a passion for exploring the unknown and admiring the sky and the stars,” he explained. “So this is a wonderful opportunity for me to pursue this passion and this time fly between the stars.”
The rich oil state has already sent one of its nationals into space in the past. In 1985, the Saudi Prince Sultan bin Salman took part in an American mission. But this new type of space travel is part of the arch-conservative kingdom’s strategy to improve the country’s image, where women were not allowed to drive a few years ago. Saudi Arabia established the Saudi Space Authority in 2018 and launched a program to send astronauts into space last year.