spacetoday.net: Saudi Arabia names astronauts who will fly on commercial ISS mission

Posted: Sat, Feb 18, 2023, 9:27 AM ET (1427 GMT)
The government of Saudi Arabia revealed Feb. 12 the two astronauts who will fly to the ISS this spring on a private astronaut mission. The Saudi Space Commission said that Rayyanah Barnawi, a cancer researcher, and Ali Alqarni, a fighter pilot, will go to the station as soon as this May on Axiom Space's Ax-2 private astronaut mission. The Saudi government had previously been identified as the likely customer for two of the four seats on Ax-2, but neither Axiom nor Saudi officials had confirmed that or identified who they selected for the mission. Ax-2 will spend 10 days at the station in the second in a series of private astronaut missions by Axiom as it develops commercial modules for the ISS that will be precursors for a standalone space station.