ORLANDO, Fla. — The names of the two astronauts from Saudi Arabia headed up for a short stay on the International Space Station were announced Sunday.
Rayyanah Barnawi, the nation’s first female astronaut, will join Ali AlQarni as two of the four crew for the private Axiom Mission 2 from Axiom Space slated to launch atop a Falcon 9 rocket in a SpaceX Crew Dragon from Kennedy Space Center as early as May.
The two join Axiom Space’s Director of Human Spaceflight and former NASA astronaut Peggy Whitson, who will command the mission, and aviator John Shoffner, who has been named mission pilot. Shoffner and the two seats for the Saudi Space Commission astronauts are paid rides to Axiom Space while Whitson leads the way as an employee in the same way that former NASA astronaut and now Axiom Space employee Michael López-Alegría led three paying customers on the Axiom Mission 1 in 2022.
