Saudi Arabia will send its first female astronaut and a male astronaut to the International Space Station (ISS) this year, reports the Saudi Press Agency.
Rayyanah Barnawi and Ali Al Qarni will blast off into outer space in the second quarter of this year.
The Saudi astronauts will join the crew of the AX-2 space mission and will advance Saudi Arabia’s contribution to scientific research in space technology, health and sustainability.
Saudi space mission
The space mission is scheduled to launch from the USA to the International Space Station.
In addition, the Saudi Human Spaceflight Program includes the training of two more astronauts on all mission requirements. They have been named as Mariam Fardous and Ali AlGamdi.
The Chairman of the Saudi Space Commission (SSC), Abdullah Bin Amer Al-Swaha, said that the Kingdom’s leadership is keen to give unlimited support to the space program.
Through this program, the Kingdom seeks to activate scientific innovations at the level of space sciences, enhance its ability to independently conduct its own research that will reflect positively on the future of the industry and the country, increase the interest of graduates in the fields of science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM), and develop human capital by attracting talents and the necessary skills.
Mohammed Bin Saud Al-Tamimi, the CEO of the SSC, expressed his gratitude to the leadership for the support and empowerment to the commission.
Sending astronauts into space is a symbol of the Kingdom’s global competitiveness in fields of technology, engineering, research, and innovation.
The Kingdom will be one of only a few countries in the world to have two astronauts of the same nationality aboard the International Space Station at the same time.
The SSC also states that this program comes in cooperation with a group of entities, led by the Ministry of Defence, the Ministry of Sport, the General Authority of Civil Aviation and King Faisal Specialist Hospital and Research Centre, in addition to international partners such as Axiom Space, which specializes in human spaceflights and the development of space infrastructure in the USA.
The SSC had previously launched the Saudi Human Spaceflight Program. This flight is an integral milestone of a comprehensive program aiming to train and qualify experienced nationals to undertake human spaceflight, conduct scientific experiments, participate in international research, and future space-related missions contributing to the Kingdom’s Vision 2030.
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