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SpaceX successfully launched a multimillion-dollar flight to the International Space Station on Sunday evening with two Saudis on board, the country’s first astronauts in decades.
The company launched the team of ticket holders, led by a retired NASA astronaut who now works for the company that organized the trip, as part of a galactic space chase involving CEO Elon Musk.
Also on board: American businessman John Shoffner, owner of a sports car team.
The four are expected to reach the space station in their capsule on Monday morning; they will spend just over a week there before returning home with a splash off the coast of Florida.
Sponsored by the Saudi government, stem cell researcher Rayyanah Barnawi has become the first woman from the kingdom to go into space.
A SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket, with the Dragon capsule and a crew of four private astronauts blasts off from pad 39A, at the Kennedy Space Center in Cape Canaveral on Sunday
She was joined by Ali al-Qarni, a Royal Saudi Air Force fighter pilot.
They are the first from their country to pilot a rocket since a Saudi prince launched aboard the space shuttle Discovery in 1985.
In the blink of an eye, they will be greeted at the station by an astronaut from United Arab Emirates.
“It’s a dream come true for everyone,” Barnawi said before the flight.
“Just being able to understand that it’s possible. If me and Ali can do it, then they can do it too.
Rounding out the visiting team: Knoxville, Tennessee, John Shoffner, former driver and sports car racing team owner who competes in Europe, and Chaperone Peggy Whitsonthe first female station commander who holds the American record for the most cumulative time in space: 665 days and more.
“It was a phenomenal ride,” Whitson said after reaching orbit. His teammates cheered with joy.
This is the second private flight to the space station by Houston-based Axiom Space.
Saudi government-sponsored stem cell researcher Rayyanah Barnawi has become the kingdom’s first woman in space
The company launched the team of ticket holders, led by a retired NASA astronaut who now works for the company that organized the trip, as part of a galactic space chase involving CEO Elon Musk.
This is the second private flight to the space station by Houston-based Axiom Space.
People watch a screen in Riyadh on May 21, 2023 as a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket carrying astronauts for the Axiom 2 mission prepares to take off
The first was last year by three businessmenwith another retired NASA astronaut.
The company plans to start adding its own rooms to the station in a few years, then removing them to form a self-contained outpost available for rent.
Axiom won’t say how much Shoffner and Saudi Arabia are paying for the planned 10-day mission. The company had previously quoted a ticket price of $55 million each.
NASA’s latest price list lists a per person per day charge 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 ahead of time? Calculate about $10,000 a pound, the same cost to throw it away afterwards. Need to get your items back intact? Double the price. Email and video links are free.
Guests will have access to most of the station as they conduct experiments, photograph Earth and chat with school children at home, demonstrating how kites fly through space when attached to a fan.
NASA’s latest price list lists a per person per day charge of $2,000 for food and up to $1,500 for sleeping bags and other gear.
The company plans to start adding its own rooms to the station in a few years, then removing them to form a self-contained outpost available for rent.
Guests will have access to most of the station as they conduct experiments, photograph Earth and chat with school children at home, demonstrating how kites fly through space when attached to a fan.
After decades of avoiding space tourism, NASA is now embracing it with two planned private missions per year.
The Russian Space Agency has been doing this, on and off, for decades.
“Our job is to expand what we do in low Earth orbit around the world,” said NASA space station program manager Joel Montalbano.
SpaceX’s first-stage booster landed at Cape Canaveral eight minutes after liftoff, to be recycled for a future flight.
SpaceX successfully launches two Saudis and others into space to dock with space station