A private flight carrying two Saudi astronauts and other passengers returned to Earth Tuesday night after a nine-day journey to the International Space Station.
The SpaceX capsule carrying the four passengers landed by parachute in the Gulf of Mexico, near the Panhandle, in the US state of Florida, 12 hours after undocking from the orbiting laboratory.
With the sponsorship of the Saudi government, Rayyanah Barnawi, a stem cell researcher, became the first woman from the kingdom to travel into space. Barnawi was joined by Ali al-Qarni, a fighter pilot in the Royal Saudi Air Force.
Barnawi wiped away tears as he finished the experiments for which he was responsible and prepared to leave the space station.
“All stories have an end and this is just the beginning of a new era for our country and our region,” he said Monday.
Rounding out the team were businessman John Shoffner, a former driver and promoter of a sports car racing team that competes in Europe, and his partner Peggy Whitson, the first female station commander, who holds the US record for longest cumulative time in the space: 665 days. , and who now works for Axiom Space, the company that chartered the flight.
This is the second private flight to the space station organized by the Houston-based company. The first was carried out last year by three businessmen, with another retired NASA astronaut. The company plans to start adding its own rooms to the station within a few years, eventually turning it into a self-contained outpost, available for rent.
Source: TSF
