New Delhi: Saudi Arabia will send its first woman astronaut on a space mission later this year, reported news agency AFP quoting state media on Monday. This is the latest attempt by the kingdom to change its ultra-conservative image. The official Saudi Press Agency announced on Sunday that Rayyana Barnawi and fellow Saudi male astronaut Ali Al-Qarni will embark on a mission to the International Space Station (ISS) "during the second quarter of 2023."
The agency stated that the space mission would "launch from the USA" and that the astronauts would "join the crew of the AX-2 space mission."
The oil-rich nation will follow in the footsteps of the United Arab Emirates, which is nearby and became the first Arab nation to send a citizen into space in 2019.
Hazzaa al-Mansoori, an astronaut at the time, spent eight days on the ISS. Sultan al-Neyadi, an additional Emirati, will travel later this month.
Neyadi, 41, is known as the "Sultan of Space." When he launches for the ISS on a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket, he will become the first Arab astronaut to spend six months in space.
Numerous initiatives have been undertaken by Gulf monarchies in an effort to diversify their energy-reliant economies.
Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, the de facto leader of Saudi Arabia, has also been pushing for changes to get rid of the kingdom's strict image.
Women's participation in the workforce has more than doubled from 17% in 2016 to 37% since his rise to power in 2017. Since his rise to power in 2017, women have been permitted to drive and travel abroad without the supervision of a male guardian.
However, Saudi Arabia's venture into space is not the first.
Saudi air force pilot Prince Sultan bin Salman bin Abdulaziz became the first Arab Muslim to travel into space in 1985 when he participated in a US-organised space mission.
As part of Prince Salman's Vision 2030 agenda for economic diversification, Saudi Arabia established a space program in 2018 and launched another in 2017 to send astronauts into space.