Saudi Arabia to send its first female astronaut in space

Saudi Arabia will send its first ever woman astronaut on a space mission later this year.

The astronauts "will join the crew of the AX-2 space mission" and the space flight will launch from the USA, France 24 reports

Rayyana 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 former NASA astronaut Peggy Whitson and the Tennessee businessman John Shoffner will be a part of the crew.

The Ax-2 board will be launched to the ISS by a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket from NASA's John F. Kennedy Space Center in Florida.

The oil-rich country will be following in the footsteps of the neighbouring United Arab Emirates, which in 2019 became the first Arab country to send one of its citizens into space.

At the time, astronaut Hazzaa al-Mansoori spent eight days on the ISS. Another fellow Emirati, Sultan al-Neyadi, will also make a voyage later this month. He will be the first astronaut to spend 6 months on the ISS.

In 2018, Saudi Arabia set up a space programme and last year launched another to send astronauts into space, all part of Prince Salman's Vision 2030 agenda for economic diversification.