Saudi Arabia to send its first woman into space
Gulf monarchies are seeking to diversify their energy-reliant economies through a plethora of projects, including space missions
Saudi Arabia will send its first-ever woman astronaut to space later this year, in the latest move to revamp the kingdom’s ultra-conservative image.
Rayyana Barnawi will join fellow Saudi male astronaut Ali al-Qarni on a mission to the International Space Station (ISS) “during the second quarter of 2023,” the official Saudi Press Agency said Saturday. The astronauts “will join the crew of the AX-2 space mission” and the space flight will “launch from the” United States, it added.
The oil-rich Gulf country will be following in the footsteps of its neighbor the United Arab Emirates, which in 2019 became the first Arab state to send one of its citizens to space. At the time, astronaut Hazzaa al-Mansoori spent eight days on the ISS.
Another fellow Emirati, Sultan al-Neyadi, will also make the voyage later this month. Nicknamed the “Sultan of Space,” Neyadi will become the first Arab astronaut to spend six months in space when he takes off for the ISS aboard a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket.
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Gulf monarchies have been seeking to diversify their energy-reliant economies through a plethora of projects.
Saudi de facto leader Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman has also been trying to shake off the kingdom's austere image through a push for reforms. Since his rise to power in 2017, women have been allowed to drive and travel abroad without a male guardian, and their proportion in the workforce has more than doubled since 2016.