Saudi astronauts to head to International Space Station on May 8

Two Saudi astronauts are set to head to the International Space Station for Axiom Space’s second private astronaut mission for 10 days on May 8.

Rayyanah Barnawi, a breast cancer researcher, will be the first Saudi woman to travel into space, and she will be joined on the journey by fighter pilot Ali Al Qarni.

Peggy Whitson, a former Nasa astronaut who will be making her fourth voyage to the ISS, and John Shoffner, a Tennessee businessman who will act as pilot, will both be on board.

They will join UAE astronaut Sultan Al Neyadi, who began his six-month mission on March 3, on board the ISS.

Lift-off of Axiom Mission 2 (Ax-2) aboard a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket is scheduled from the Kennedy Space Centre at Cape Canaveral, Axiom Space and Nasa officials said in a briefing to preview the flight.

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

While 263 people from 20 countries have visited the ISS, the kingdom will become the sixth nation to have two national astronauts simultaneously working aboard the orbiting laboratory, Axiom Space said.

The upcoming space mission comes nearly 40 years after Saudi Arabia sent the first Arab – Prince Sultan bin Salman – to space in 1985.