Two Saudi astronauts, including the first woman, took off this Sunday aboard a private flight to the International Space Station.
The SpaceX company launched the crew that bought the ticket, led by a retired NASA astronaut, who now works for the company that organized the trip. Also on board is an American businessman, who is now the sponsor of a sports car racing team.
The four will arrive at the space station in their capsule on Monday morning and will spend just over a week there before returning home after landing off the coast of Florida.
Rayyanah Barnawi, a stem cell researcher, was sponsored by the government of Saudi Arabia and became the kingdom’s first woman to go into space. She was accompanied by Ali al-Qarni, a fighter pilot for the Royal Saudi Air Force.
They are the first in their country to travel in a rocket since a Saudi prince was launched aboard the shuttle Discovery in 1985. On occasion, you will be met at the station by an astronaut from the United Arab Emirates.
“This is a dream come true for everyone,” Barnawi said before the flight. “Just the fact that we can understand that this is possible. If me and Ali can do it, so can they,” he said.
Rounding out the visiting team are John Shoffner of Knoxville, Tennessee, a former driver and promoter of a sports car racing team competing in Europe, and Peggy Whitson, the station’s first female commander, who holds the U.S. record for greatest accumulated time in space . : 665 days and more.
This is the second private flight to the space station to be hosted by Houston-based Axiom Space. The first was conducted last year by three businessmen, along with another retired NASA astronaut. The company plans to begin adding its own rooms to the station within a few years, eventually turning it into a standalone outpost available for rent.
Axiom is not disclosing how much Shoffner and Saudi Arabia are paying for the 10-day mission. The company had previously quoted a price of $55 million for each.
NASA’s latest price list indicates the price per person per day is $2,000 for food and up to $1,500 for sleeping bags and other gear.
In any case, the email and video links are free.
Guests can access most of the station as they conduct experiments, photograph the Earth and talk to schoolchildren in their countries, and demonstrate how kites fly in space when connected to a fan.
After decades of avoiding space tourism, NASA now schedules two private missions a year. The Russian space agency has been doing this intermittently for decades.
“Our job is to expand what we do in low Earth orbit around the world,” said NASA Space Station Program Director Joel Montalbano.
Source: DN
