Meet Rayyanah Barnawi, the first Arab woman astronaut to go to space

Born in September 1988 in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, Barnawi is a biomedical researcher with almost a decade of experience in cancer stem-cell research. She is part of a team which recently went to the International Space Station (ISS) in a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket from the Kennedy Space Center, Florida.

Saudi Arabian astronaut Rayyanah Barnawi waves to family and friends as she arrives at the Kennedy Space Center in Cape Canaveral, Fla., for a launch. (AP Photo/John Raoux)

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Part of Axiom Space’s private mission to the International Space Station (ISS), Rayyanah Barnawi became the first Arab woman astronaut to go into space on May 21. A Saudi Arabia national, Barnawi, along with fellow Saudi Ali Al-Qarni, a fighter pilot, reached the space station the next day, the BBC reported.

Barwani is part of a team which has travelled to the ISS in a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket from the Kennedy Space Center at Cape Canaveral in the southern state of Florida. The group — also including Peggy Whitson, a former NASA astronaut who will be making her fourth flight to the ISS, and John Shoffner, a businessman from Tennessee — will stay aboard the space station for around eight days to carry out a variety of experiments.

In a video recorded in space before she reached the ISS, Barwani said: “To the people around the world, the future is very bright. I would like you to dream big, believe in yourselves and believe in humanity.,” as per the BBC report.

Who is Rayyanah Barnawi?

Born in September 1988 in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, Barnawi is a biomedical researcher with almost a decade of experience in cancer stem-cell research. She has multiple degrees in biomedical sciences, including a Master of Biomedical Sciences from Alfaisal University in Saudi Arabia, and a Bachelor of Biomedical Sciences from Otago University in New Zealand, according to Axiom Space’s website.

Axiom Mission 2 (Ax-2) Mission specialists Ali Alqarni and Rayyanah Barnawi, representing Saudi Arabia, arrive on the International Space Station orbiting Earth May 22, 2023 in a still image from video. (NASA TV/Handout via Reuters)

It added, “Barnawi has spent over nine years as a research lab technician for the Stem Cell and Tissue Re-engineering Program at King Faisal Specialist Hospital and Research Center located in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. She has had various technical and research responsibilities.”

Apart from this, the researcher is also interested in adventure sports, such as scuba diving, hang gliding, ledge swinging, hiking and rafting.

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What is Axiom Space’s private mission?

Called Axiom Mission 2, or Ax-2, this is the second private mission by Axiom Space, an American privately funded space infrastructure manufacturing company that was co-founded by Michael Suffredini, who served as NASA’s International Space Station Program Manager from 2005 to 2015.

As part of the latest mission, Barnawi and her other crew members will conduct about 20 science and technology experiments, covering various areas such as human physiology, cell biology, and technology development.

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“Data collected in-flight will impact understanding of human physiology on Earth and on-orbit, as well as establish the utility of novel technologies that could be used for future human spaceflight pursuits and humankind on Earth,” Axion Space mentioned on its website.

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Barnawi, whose name for the mission was announced by the Saudi Space Commission earlier this year, will be working on stem cell and breast cancer research.

Saudi Arabia and space exploration

Although Barnawi is the first Saudi woman to reach space, she isn’t the first Saudi to go there. The first Saudi national to arrive in space was Prince Sultan ibn Salman Abd al-Aziz Al Saud, who was part of a US-organised space voyage that took place in 1985. In a bid to make a name for itself in the field of space exploration, the country, in 2018, established its first space agency, the Saudi Space Commission.

Barnawi’s journey to the space station, however, is not just a part of Saudi Arabia’s attempt to become a dominant player in astronomy and cosmology. It also wants to shed its image of being an ultraconservative country that doesn’t treat women as equal to men.