Saudi Arabia will send its first female astronaut, Rayyana Barnawi, on a space mission later this year, according to state media reports. The mission will be in partnership with fellow Saudi astronaut Ali Al-Qarni and will be launched from the United States during the second quarter of 2023. The two astronauts will join the crew of the AX-2 space mission and will be headed to the International Space Station (ISS).
This move is part of the kingdom’s efforts to revamp its image and to diversify its energy-reliant economy. The neighboring country, the United Arab Emirates, became the first Arab country to send its citizen into space in 2019 when astronaut Hazzaa al-Mansoori spent eight days on the ISS. Another Emirati astronaut, Sultan al-Neyadi, who is nicknamed the “Sultan of Space”, will soon make a voyage to the ISS, becoming the first Arab astronaut to spend six months in space.
Saudi Arabia has a history with space missions. In 1985, Prince Sultan bin Salman bin Abdulaziz, an airforce pilot, became the first Arab Muslim to travel into space as part of a US-organized mission.
In 2018, the country established its own space program, and last year, it launched a new program to send astronauts into space as part of Prince Salman’s Vision 2030 agenda for economic diversification.
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