Saudi Arabian astronauts, including the nation’s first woman, catch a SpaceX flight to the space station: NPR
A SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket, with its Dragon capsule and crew of four private astronauts, lifted off from Platform 39A, at Kennedy Space Center in Cape Canaveral, Fla., on Sunday.
John Raoux/AP
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A SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket, with its Dragon capsule and crew of four private astronauts, lifted off from Platform 39A, at Kennedy Space Center in Cape Canaveral, Fla., on Sunday.
John Raoux/AP
CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. – Saudi Arabia’s first astronauts in decades launched rockets to the International Space Station on a multimillion-dollar flight on Sunday.
SpaceX has launched a crew of ticket holders, led by a retired NASA astronaut who now works for the company that arranged the trip. Also on board: an American businessman who now owns a motorsport team.
All four will arrive at the space station in their capsule on Monday morning; they will be there for just over a week before returning home with an adventure off the coast of Florida.
Funded by the government of Saudi Arabia, Rayyanah Barnawi, a stem cell researcher, has become the kingdom’s first woman to go into space. She was accompanied by Ali al-Qarni, a fighter pilot of the Royal Saudi Air Force.
They are the first people from their country to fly a rocket since a Saudi prince launched the space shuttle Discovery in 1985. For a random period of time, they will be greeted at home. station by an astronaut from the United Arab Emirates.
“This is a dream come true for everyone,” Barnawi said before the flight. “Just understand that this is possible. If Ali and I can do it, so can they.”
Rounding out the tour crew: John Shoffner of Knoxville, Tennessee, former driver and owner of a motorsport team that competes in Europe, and chaperone Peggy Whitson, the station’s first female commander, US record holder for most cumulative time in space: 665 days and counting.
“It was an extraordinary trip,” Whitson said after going into orbit. Her teammates clapped their hands happily.
The crew of the SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket, with the Crew Dragon spacecraft, from left, Saudi astronaut Rayyanah Barnawi, commander Peggy Whitson, pilot John Shoffner and Saudi astronaut Ali al -Qarni arrives at the Kennedy Space Center in Cape Canaveral, Fla., before launching to the International Space Station on Sunday.
Terry Renna/AP
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The crew of the SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket, with the Crew Dragon spacecraft, from left, Saudi astronaut Rayyanah Barnawi, commander Peggy Whitson, pilot John Shoffner and Saudi astronaut Ali al -Qarni arrives at the Kennedy Space Center in Cape Canaveral, Fla., before launching to the International Space Station on Sunday.
Terry Renna/AP
This is the second private flight to the space station organized by Houston-based Axiom Space. The first was last year by three entrepreneurs, with another retired NASA astronaut. The company plans to start adding its own rooms to the station over the next few years, eventually phasing them out to form a standalone outpost available for rent.
Axiom would not say how much Shoffner and Saudi Arabia would pay for the planned 10-day mission. The company previously cited a ticket price of $55 million each.
NASA’s latest price list shows the cost per person, per day, of $2,000 for food and up to $1,500 for sleeping bags and other gear. Need to get your stuff to the space station first? Imagine about $10,000 per pound ($20,000 per kilogram), the same fee for trash disposal afterward. Need your item back intact? Double the price.
At least the email and video links are free.
Guests will have access to most of the station as they conduct experiments, photograph the Earth and chat with schoolchildren at home, demonstrating how kites fly through space when attached to a fan.
After decades of shunning space tourism, NASA is now embracing it with two separate missions planned each year. The Russian Space Agency has been doing that for decades.
“Our work is to extend what we do in low-Earth orbit around the globe,” said NASA space station program director Joel Montalbano.
SpaceX’s first-stage booster landed back at Cape Canaveral eight minutes after takeoff, to be recycled for future flight.
