The First Saudi Arabian Female Astronaut Arrives at the ISS, Will Do Research for 10 Days!

The crew traveled into space aboard the SpaceX Dragon spacecraft, (photo: SpaceX YouTube Screenshot)

JAKARTA - The first private mission Axiom Mission 2 (Ax-2), which also carried the first woman from Saudi Arabia, landed safely on the International Space Station (ISS).

The Ax-2 carried four astronauts, including commander Peggy Whitson, pilot John Shoffner, mission specialist Rayyanah Barnawi who became the first woman from Saudi Arabia and his partner Ali Alqarni, the second male astronaut from the Gulf kingdom to go into outer space.

The crew travels into space aboard the SpaceX Dragon spacecraft, aboard a Falcon 9 rocket that launches from the Kennedy Space Center (KSC) in Cape Canaveral, Florida, at 21:37 p.m. GMT, Sunday, May 21.

Dragon docked independently of the ISS at 13:12 p.m. GMT yesterday. Barnawi and the rest of the crew will spend 10 days on the ISS.

The 34-year-old biomedical scientist plans to conduct stem cell and breast cancer research. She hopes to inspire women of all backgrounds in the Middle East.

"For people around the world, the future is very bright. I wish you to dream big, believe in yourself and believe in humanity," Barnawi said in a video recorded in space before reaching the ISS.

Barnawi also hopes to share his experiences on the ISS via video link with the children. "Being able to see their faces when they see astronauts from their own territory for the first time is very thrilling," he said.

Barnawi's experiment will build on some of the work he has done over the past nine years, as a research laboratory technician at the King Faisal Specialist Hospital Network and Research Center's Stem Cell Reengineering Program and Research Center in Riyadh.

While the rest of the crew, will carry out more than 20 science and technology experiments, including the influence of outer space on human health and rain seeding technology, quoted from BBC International.