On May 8, NASA officials announced that Rayyanah Barnawi and a crew of three additional astronauts would launch on a personal space mission from the US state of Florida.
Rayyanah Barnawi, a breast cancer researcher, is set to become the first Saudi Arabian woman to blast off on a mission to space this May. According to NASA officials, Barnawi will travel on a private mission with fellow Saudi Ali Al-Qarni, a fighter pilot, Peggy Whitson, a former astronaut with the National Aeronautics and Space Administration, and Tennessee businessman John Shoffner, who will serve as a pilot
The SpaceX Dragon spacecraft carrying the four-person crew will take them to the International Space Station (ISS). This is the second trip for the commercial space business Axiom Space.
Barnawi will work as a mission specialist for Axiom Mission 2. (Ax-2). The international astronaut’s journey to space is viewed as Saudi Arabia’s most recent effort to change its staunchly conservative reputation.
She will launch with the crew on May 8 from Florida in the United States in a private mission that is viewed as a crucial step toward the first commercial space station in the world, which might eventually replace the International Space Station, according to NASA’s website.
Who is Rayyanah Barnawi?
Barnawi obtained a biomedical sciences undergraduate degree from the University of Otago in New Zealand. She completed a master’s degree in biomedical sciences in Saudi Arabia. Her 10-day voyage to the International Space Station will make her the first Muslim woman to travel to space, according to NASA. She is a research laboratory worker with nine years of experience in breast cancer and stem-cell cancer research.
The mission is scheduled to launch in May 2023, one year after Axiom Space’s initial attempt, Ax-1, in which four astronauts spent 17 days in orbit. According to Axiom Space and NASA representatives, the voyage will launch on May 8 from the Kennedy Space Center in Cape Canaveral, Florida.
