Saudi Arabia, an oil-rich country, will send its first woman astronaut, Rayyana Barnawi, on a space mission this year in the latest attempt to restore the kingdom’s ultra-conservative image.
On Sunday, the official Saudi Press agency said Rayyana Barnawi will be joining the mission with a fellow Saudi male astronaut Ali Al-Qarni to the International Space Station (ISS) “during the second quarter of 2023”.
The agency said the astronauts “will join the crew of the AX-2 space mission” and the space flight will “launch from the USA”.
The country will follow its neighbor United Arab Emirates, which in 2019 became the first Arab country to send one of its citizens in space. Astronaut Hazzaa al-Mansoor, at the time, had spent eight days on the ISS.
Sultan al-Neyadi, 41, an Emirati, is scheduled to take a trip to space later this month.
Sultan al-Neyadi, nicknamed “Sultan of Space”, will become the first Arab astronaut to stay in space for six months when he blasts off for the ISS aboard a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket.
Gulf monarchies have been wanting to expand their energy-reliant economies through various projects.
Saudi de facto leader Crown Prince Mohammad bin Salman has been attempting to dislodge the kingdom’s austere reputation by demanding reforms.
Since his reign began in 2017, women are allowed to drive and travel abroad with a male companion and have increased their workforce from 17 per cent to 37 per cent. However, Saudi Arabia’s plans in space are not the first.
Saudi royal Prince Sultan bin Salman bin Abdulaziz, an air force pilot, participated in a US-based space mission in 1985 and became the first Arab Muslim to travel to space.
The oil-rich country also launched a space programme in 2018 and set up another programme with the objective to send astronauts into space, which is all part of Prince Salman’s Vision 2030 agenda for economic expansion.
