• Saudi Arabia will send its first female astronaut into space later this year.
• Rayyana Barnawi will travel to the (ISS) with fellow Saudi male astronaut Ali Al-Qarni.
• The astronauts will join the crew of the AX-2 space mission.

According to state media, Saudi Arabia will send its first female astronaut into space later this year in the latest effort to improve the kingdom’s ultra-conservative image.

Rayyana Barnawi will travel to the International Space Station (ISS) with fellow Saudi male astronaut Ali Al-Qarni “during the second quarter of 2023,” according to the Saudi Press Agency.

The astronauts “will join the crew of the AX-2 space mission” and the space flight will “launch from the USA”, the agency said.

The oil-rich country will follow in the footsteps of neighboring UAE, which became the first Arab country to send one of its citizens into space in 2019.

At the time, astronaut Hazzaa al-Mansoori was aboard the ISS for eight days. Sultan al-Neyadi, another Emirati, will also travel later this month.

Sultan of Space

The “Sultan of Space,” 41-year-old Neyadi, will become the first Arab astronaut to spend six months in space when he launches aboard a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket towards the International Space Station.

Gulf states have been working on various projects to diversify their energy-reliant economies.

Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman has also been pushing for reforms in order to shed the kingdom’s austerity image.

Since his election in 2017, women have been allowed to drive and go abroad without the supervision of a male guardian, and their share of the workforce has more than doubled since 2016, from 17% to 37%.

However, Saudi Arabia’s venture into space is hardly the first.

Saudi royal Prince Sultan bin Salman bin Abdulaziz, an airforce pilot, participated in a US-organized space mission in 1985, becoming the first Arab Muslim to journey into space.

Saudi Arabia established a space program in 2018 and began another last year to send people into space, all as part of Prince Salman’s Vision 2030 strategy for economic diversification.

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