Saudi Arabia will send its first female astronaut on a space mission later this year, state media has reported, in the latest move to improve the kingdom’s ultra-conservative image.
Rayana Barnawi will join fellow Saudi male astronaut Ali Al-Qarni on a mission to the International Space Station (ISS) “during the second quarter of 2023,” the official Saudi Press Agency said on Sunday.
The agency said the astronauts “will join the crew of the AX-2 space mission” and that the spaceflight “will begin in the United States.”
The oil-rich country will follow in the footsteps of neighboring United Arab Emirates, which in 2019 became the first Arab country to send a citizen into space.
At that time, astronaut Huza al-Mansoori spent eight days on the ISS. Another fellow Emirati, Sultan Al Nyadi, will also travel later this month.
Nicknamed the “Sultan of Space”, 41-year-old Nayadi will become the first Arab astronaut to spend six months in space when he takes off for the ISS on a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket.
Gulf countries are trying to diversify their energy-dependent economies through a number of projects.
Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman is also trying to shed the kingdom’s image of austerity by pushing for reforms.
Since he came to power in 2017, women have been allowed to drive and travel abroad without a male guardian, and their proportion in the workforce has more than doubled since 2016, 17 percent has increased to 37 percent.
However, this is not Saudi Arabia’s first foray into space.
In 1985, Saudi Crown Prince Sultan bin Salman bin Abdulaziz, an Air Force pilot, participated in a US-sponsored space mission, becoming the first Arab Muslim to travel in space.
In 2018, Saudi Arabia launched a space program and last year launched another to send astronauts into space, part of Prince Salman’s Vision 2030 agenda for economic diversification.
