Saudis name two for trip to space

ORLANDO, Fla. — The names of the two astronauts from Saudi Arabia headed up for a short stay on the International Space Station were announced Sunday.

Rayyanah Barnawi, the nation’s first female astronaut, will join Ali AlQarni as two of the four crew members for the private Axiom Mission 2 from Axiom Space slated to launch atop a Falcon 9 rocket in a SpaceX Crew Dragon from Kennedy Space Center as early as May.

The two join Axiom Space’s director of human spaceflight and former NASA astronaut Peggy Whitson, who will command the mission, and aviator John Shoffner, who has been named mission pilot.

Shoffner and the two seats for the Saudi Space Commission astronauts are paid rides to Axiom Space while Whitson leads the way as an employee.

Each Ax-1 customer shelled out $55 million. The price of the Ax-2 seats has not been revealed.

The names of the Saudi pair were announced in a news release from the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, with backup astronauts Mariam Fardous and Ali AlGamdi also training.

“This aims to empower national capabilities in human spaceflight geared toward serving humanity and benefiting from the promising opportunities offered by the space industry, as well as contributing to scientific research in many aspects such as health, sustainability and space technology,” the release stated.

The two astronauts will become the second and third Saudis to make it to space after Prince Sultan bin Salman Al Saud, who was part of the STS-51-G crew on board space shuttle Discovery in 1985.

NASA announced it had approved all four crew headed to the station back in January, but the identities of the Saudi astronauts was left to the country to reveal. The quartet plans to stay on board for 10 days, during which it will focus on scientific experiments and outreach.

The mission is a precursor of the company’s plans to build out its own space station beginning with the addition of modules to attach to the ISS before separating by 2030 into their own freestanding station.