Crown Prince Meets Saudi Astronauts Before Their Space Mission

Prime Minister and Crown Prince of KSA Mohammed bin Salman met Saudi astronauts prior to the launch of Saudi's scientific mission to the International Space Station (ISS). 

The Saudi astronauts included Rayyanah Barnawi, Ali Al-Qarni, Mariam Firdous, and Ali Al-Ghamdi. Astronauts Barnawi and Al-Qarni will join the crew of the AX-2 space mission, which is Axiom Space’s second all-private astronaut mission to the ISS in May.

Barnawi will be the first Saudi, Muslim, and Arab woman in space when she travels as part of this space mission. Firdous and Al-Ghamdi will be assisting Barnawi and Al-Qarni from the ground station. 

The Crown Prince congratulated the astronauts for qualifying for the space mission and emphasized that the astronauts represent the aspirations of the Saudi people to contribute to space research.

He also said that the astronauts will be ambassadors of the Kingdom at the ISS through their space mission, which will allow them to conduct research in fields of environmental sustainability and health.  

The astronauts are expected to liftoff aboard the SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket at 10:43 p.m. Eastern Time (ET) (5:43 a.m. in KSA) on May 8th from the Kennedy Space Center at Cape Canaveral, Florida.

The four-member crew will travel to the ISS aboard a SpaceX Dragon capsule and they will spend 10 days aboard the orbiting space station. 

Image source: @Astro_Rayyanah Twitter page.