She is going to go to the Worldwide House Station (ISS) later this yr. (Representational)
Riyadh, Saudi Arabia:
Saudi Arabia will ship its first ever lady astronaut on an area mission later this yr, state media has reported, within the newest transfer to revamp the dominion’s ultra-conservative picture.
Rayyana Barnawi will be part of fellow Saudi male astronaut Ali Al-Qarni on a mission to the Worldwide House Station (ISS) “in the course of the second quarter of 2023”, the official Saudi Press Company stated on Sunday.
The astronauts “will be part of the crew of the AX-2 area mission” and the area flight will “launch from the USA”, the company stated.
The oil-rich nation shall be following within the footsteps of the neighbouring United Arab Emirates which in 2019 turned the primary Arab nation to ship one in all its residents into area.
On the time, astronaut Hazzaa al-Mansoori spent eight days on the ISS. One other fellow Emirati, Sultan al-Neyadi, will even make a voyage later this month.
Nicknamed the “Sultan of House”, 41-year-old Neyadi will turn into the primary Arab astronaut to spend six months in area when he blasts off for the ISS aboard a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket.
Gulf monarchies have been in search of to diversify their energy-reliant economies by means of a plethora of initiatives.
Saudi de facto chief Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman has additionally been making an attempt to shake off the dominion’s austere picture by means of a push for reforms.
Since his rise to energy in 2017, girls have been allowed to drive and to journey overseas with out a male guardian, and their proportion within the workforce has greater than doubled since 2016, from 17 p.c to 37 p.c.
Saudi Arabia’s foray into area is just not the primary, nevertheless.
In 1985, Saudi royal Prince Sultan bin Salman bin Abdulaziz, an airforce pilot, took half in a US-organised area mission, turning into the primary Arab Muslim to journey into area.
In 2018, Saudi Arabia arrange an area programme and final yr launched one other to ship astronauts into area, all a part of Prince Salman’s Imaginative and prescient 2030 agenda for financial diversification.
(Aside from the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV workers and is revealed from a syndicated feed.)
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