Saudi Astronauts, Including First Arab Woman, Are Sent By SpaceX To ISS

The first Arab woman astronaut launched into space aboard a personal rocket on a mission to the International Space Station (ISS).

Ali al-Qarni, a fighter pilot from Saudi Arabia, traveled on Sunday's mission with Rayyanah Barnawi, a Saudi breast cancer researcher.

They are the first Saudi astronauts to travel to space in many years.

At 5:37 p.m. local time (21:37 GMT), they launched from Cape Canaveral in the southern United States on a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket.

Peggy Whitson, a former NASA astronaut who will be making her fourth trip to the ISS, and Tennessee businessman John Shoffner, who is serving as the pilot, are also members of the crew.

The four should arrive at the space station on Monday morning in their capsule. They will stay there for just over a week before returning to Earth with a splashdown off the Florida shore of the southern U.S. state.

"Hello from outer space! It feels amazing to be viewing Earth from this capsule," Barnawi said after settling into orbit.

Sponsored by the Saudi government, Barnawi had said earlier that it was "a great pleasure and honor" to be the first Saudi woman astronaut to voyage into space.

A career fighter pilot, al-Qarni said he has "always had the passion of exploring the unknown and just admiring the sky and the stars".

"It is a great opportunity for me to pursue this kind of passion that I have, and now maybe just fly among the stars," he said.

Along with being eager to do her studies on board, she also expressed interest in telling kids about her time on the ISS. "Being able to see their faces when they see astronauts from their own region for the first time is very thrilling," she said.

Since a Saudi ruler rode the space shuttle Discovery in 1985, the two are the first citizens of their nation to ride a rocket. By chance, a United Arab Emirates astronaut will meet them when they arrive at the station, Al Jazeera reported.

The mission marks the second private space voyage that Houston-based Axiom Space has organized to the space station.

The first was done by three businesspeople and a veteran NASA astronaut last year. In a few more years, the firm intends to begin constructing its own rooms at the station, eventually removing them to create a standalone outpost that may be rented.

Axiom declined to disclose how much Saudi Arabia and Tennessee billionaire Shoffner are paying for the anticipated 10-day expedition.

NASA now embraces it with two private missions planned yearly.

"Our job is to expand what we do in low-Earth orbit across the globe," said NASA's space station programme manager Joel Montalbano.

SpaceX's first-stage booster landed back at Cape Canaveral eight minutes after liftoff — a special treat for the launch day crowd, which included about 60 Saudis.

"It was a very, very exciting day," said Axiom's Matt Ondler.