According to state media, Saudi Arabia will send its first female astronaut on a space mission later this year in the latest effort to change the country’s staunchly conservative reputation.
According to the official Saudi Press Agency, Rayyana Barnawi will travel to the International Space Station with Ali Al-Qarni, another male Saudi astronaut, “around the second quarter of 2023.”
The space mission will “launch from the US,” it was claimed, and the astronauts “will join the crew of the AX-2 space mission.”
Through a variety of programmes, Gulf monarchs have been attempting to diversify their heavily dependent on hydrocarbon economies.
Through a push for reforms, Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman has also been attempting to shed the nation’s reputation for austerity.
