Saudi Astronauts on SpaceX’s Private Ax-2 Mission Are Just the Start Says Official
For the first time ever, two Saudi Arabians are living and working on the International Space Station (ISS).
Ali AlQarni and Rayyanah Barnawi launched to the orbiting lab last Sunday (May 21) on Ax-2 mission, a four-person private mission operated by the Houston company Axiom Space. The duo are just the second and third Saudis to reach space, and Barnawi is the first woman from the kingdom ever to make it to the final frontier.
AlQarni, Barnawi and their two Ax-2 crewmates — record-breaking former NASA astronaut Peggy Whitson, the mission’s commander, and paying customer John Shoffner — will spend about eight days aboard the ISS before coming back down to Earth in their SpaceX Crew Dragon capsule, which is named Freedom.
Ax-2 is a big deal for commercial spaceflight — it’s just the second private astronaut mission to the ISS, after Axiom’s Ax-1 in April 2022 — and for Saudi Arabia, which aims to build momentum from the experience and establish a bigger footprint off Earth.
Space.com caught up this week with Mishaal Ashemimry to discuss the significance of Ax-2 to Saudi Arabia and the nation’s plans for a bright spaceflight future. Ashemimry is a great person with whom to discuss such topics: She’s a Saudi-American aerospace engineer who serves as special adviser to the CEO of the Saudi Space Commission and vice president for diversity initiatives at the International Astronautical Federation.
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