Another premiere for the International Space Station, which has been in service since 1998: Saudi Arabia is now on board with cancer researcher Rayana Barnawi and her compatriot Ali Alqarni.
Arrived: Astronauts Alqarni and Barnawi (centre) being welcomed by the ISS crew
The flight with the Dragon space capsule lasted 16 hours, then the four travelers on a private mission reached their destination: the International Space Station (ISS). This means that, for the first time, two astronauts from Saudi Arabia are in orbit with cancer researcher Rayana Barnawi and Ali Alqarni, a trained aeronautical engineer and former fighter pilot. Barnawi is the first Saudi Arabian woman in space. Other participants in the privately organized space flight are Commander Peggy Whitson and entrepreneur John Shoffner from the USA.
“How space can bring everyone together”
“We're representative of everyone's hopes and dreams at home here,” Barnawi said at the welcome ceremony shortly after her arrival on the ISS. “We're gathered here with diverse cultures, and this international collaboration shows how space can bring everyone together.” The permanent ISS crew currently includes three Russians, three Americans and one astronaut from the United Arab Emirates.
Still on solid ground: Ax-2 crew members Shoffner, Barnawi, Whitson and Alqarni preparing for the trip
The Dragon space capsule of the US company SpaceX with the four astronauts was shot into space on Sunday – from the Cape Canaveral spaceport in the US state of Florida – with a Falcon 9 rocket. The flight is the second fully privately organized ISS mission.
The new team will carry out around 20 scientific experiments during the ten-day stay on the ISS. One of the experiments is to investigate the behavior of stem cells in weightlessness.
50 million euros for the flight to the ISS
The “Ax-2” mission was funded by the US -Company Axiom Space organized in cooperation with SpaceX and the US space agency NASA. Three entrepreneurs and former NASA astronaut Michael López-Alegría took part in the first Axiom mission “Ax-1” in April 2022. According to media reports, private individuals pay the equivalent of around 50 million euros for the trip into space.
For Saudi Arabia, “Ax-2” is the first participation in an ISS mission, but not the first trip to the Alles. In 1985, the prince and fighter pilot Sultan bin Salman bin Abdulasis took part in a space mission organized by the USA.
sti/AR (afp, dpa)