Rayyana Barnawai to become the first Saudi Arabian woman in space 

In certain countries like Saudi Arabia, due to social and religious restrictions, women still find it hard to pursue their dreams and ambitions. But recently, one of them has achieved a milestone. A 33-year-old female astronaut named Rayyana Barnawi is all set to be the first woman from Saudi Arabia in space. She will join her nation’s legendary male astronaut Ali Al Qarni and two other crew members on a 10-day mission to the International Space Station (ISS). One of them is a seasoned NASA astronaut named Peggy Whitson. This will be her fourth flight to the International Space Station. Another one is a Tennessee-based businessman named John Shoffner who will function as the pilot.  

This upcoming mission is an initiative by the private space company named Axiom Space and will use SpaceX manufactured Dragon spacecraft to fly to the ISS. The space mission will launch with the help of SpaceX’s Falcon 9 rocket from the Launch Complex 39A at NASA’s Kennedy Space Centre in Florida.  

This space programme will also be part of the nations’ Vision 2030 that aims towards economic diversification. With this, Saudi Arabia also becomes the second Arab country to send their female citizen into space, following in the footsteps of UAE who started it in 2019. Then, it was astronaut Hazzaa al-Mansoori who got to spend eight days on the ISS. Another fellow Emirati, Sultan al-Neyadi, is also set to make a journey to the space station later this month. Nicknamed the "Sultan of Space", the 41-year-old will become the first Arab astronaut to spend six months in space when he blasts off for the ISS aboard a Falcon 9 rocket. 

Experts believe that this latest initiative is the doing of Saudi Arabia’s newly crowned prince Mohammed Bin Salman who has introduced many such reforms to alter the conservative image of the nation. Other notable steps in this regard include permitting women to drive, doubling their proportion in workforce from 17 to 37 percent as well as travel overseas without a male guardian. Sources also cite that the space missions are part of the Gulf monarchies’ intention to diversify their energy-reliant economies. 

Saudi Arabia’s entrance into the space first happened in 1985 when the then Saudi royal prince Sultan Salman Bin Abdulaziz participated in a US-organised space mission. With that, he had become the first Arab Muslim to dominate the outer space. Fast forward to 2018, the country set up its first official space programme but only allowed male astronauts to fly. A sequel mission also happened in 2022 when four private astronauts spent 17 days in the ISS.