Private mission to ISS with Saudi astronauts scheduled on 8 May, according to Axiom Space, NASA

Washington, United States: Two Saudi astronauts, including the first Saudi woman, will launch from Florida on a private mission to the International Space Station (ISS) on 8 May, according to Axiom Space and NASA authorities.

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.

Liftoff of Axiom Mission 2 (Ax-2) aboard a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket is scheduled for 10:43 pm Eastern Time on 8 May (0243 GMT on 9 May) from the Kennedy Space Center 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.

The mission to the ISS will be the second by Axiom Space, a private space company.

Axiom Space carried out its first private astronaut mission to the ISS in April 2022. Four astronauts spent 17 days in orbit as part of Ax-1.

The space mission involving a Saudi woman is the latest move by the kingdom to revamp its ultra-conservative image.

But it is not the oil-rich kingdom’s first foray into space.

In 1985, Prince Sultan bin Salman bin Abdulaziz, an air force pilot, took part in a US-organized space voyage.

The neighbouring United Arab Emirates has also taken part in space missions and an Emirati astronaut, Sultan al-Neyadi, arrived on the ISS a month ago for a six-month stay.

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