Saudi Arabia to put its first female astronaut in space on May 9

Saudi is all set to script history as it is about to send off its first woman astronaut Rayyanah Barnawi, along with a fellow Saudi, on their monumental space expedition to ISS on May 9.

During a joint press briefing on Thursday, NASA and Axiom Space officials said that Barnawi and Ali Al-Qarni will take off from Florida on a private mission to the International Space Station (ISS).

Barnawi, a breast cancer researcher, is the first Saudi woman to embark into space and will be joined by Ali Al-Qarni, a fighter pilot.

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There are two other astronauts who will join Barnawi and Ali Al-Qarni in their voyage. They are Peggy Whitson, a former NASA astronaut who will be making her fourth flight to the ISS, and John Shoffner, a businessman from Tennessee who will serve as pilot.

All four of them will join UAE astronaut Sultan Al Neyadi, who began his six-month mission on March 3, on board the ISS.

SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket will carry the four-member crew and is scheduled for lift-off from the Kennedy Space Center at Cape Canaveral at 0243 GMT.

They will travel to the ISS aboard a SpaceX Dragon capsule and spend 10 days aboard the orbiting space station. The mission to the ISS, called, Axiom Mission 2, will be the second by Axiom Space, a private US space company.

Barnawai was excited when the announcement to the expedition was made. She said that this space voyage would complete the goals of the Kingdom’s space program and will contribute to achieving future explorations in various fields, reported the Saudi Gazette newspaper.

Echoing similar emotions, Al-Qarni stated, “The fact is that our mission as the first Saudi astronauts to visit the International Space Station would not have been possible without the support of our wise leadership.”

(With inputs from agencies)

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