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For the first time ever, two Saudi Arabians are living and working on the International Space Station (ISS).

Ali AlQarni and Rayyanah Barnawi launched to the orbiting lab last Sunday (May 21) on Ax-2 mission, a four-person private mission operated by the Houston company Axiom Space. The duo are just the second and third Saudis to reach space, and Barnawi is the first woman from the kingdom ever to make it to the final frontier.

AlQarni, Barnawi and their two Ax-2 crewmates — record-breaking former NASA astronaut Peggy Whitson, the mission's commander, and paying customer John Shoffner — will spend about eight days aboard the ISS before coming back down to Earth in their SpaceX Crew Dragon capsule, which is named Freedom.

Ax-2 is a big deal for commercial spaceflight — it's just the second private astronaut mission to the ISS, after Axiom's Ax-1 in April 2022 — and for Saudi Arabia, which aims to build momentum from the experience and establish a bigger footprint off Earth. 

Space.com caught up this week with Mishaal Ashemimry to discuss the significance of Ax-2 to Saudi Arabia and the nation's plans for a bright spaceflight future. Ashemimry is a great person with whom to discuss such topics: She's a Saudi-American aerospace engineer who serves as special adviser to the CEO of the Saudi Space Commission and vice president for diversity initiatives at the International Astronautical Federation. The following conversation has been edited for length.

For example, in pharmaceutical research, they can capitalize on the microgravity environment and the conditions in space in order to understand protein crystalline structures that you can create to produce medicine. So it's non-space sectors that then capitalize on the space environment to push the envelope of science. It will pull a lot of science from different fields into it and will facilitate the advancement of those fields, which will then have an impact on growing the human capital in Saudi and increasing the technical skill set, which is important.
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In an unprecedented event, two individuals hailing from Saudi Arabia were residing and performing tasks on the colossal starbase known as the International Space Station (ISS).

Ali AlQarni and Rayyanah Barnawi, the duo from the desert kingdom, catapulted into the cosmic void last Solar-Day (May 21) on board the Ax-2 mission, a quartet civilian mission under the auspices of Axiom Space, a Houston-based company. They are the second and third Saudis to venture into the cosmos, with Barnawi etching her name in history as the first woman from the kingdom to breach the celestial boundaries.

AlQarni, Barnawi, and their two companions on the Ax-2 mission — the legendary ex-NASA astronaut Peggy Whitson, who holds numerous space records and served as the mission's leader, and John Shoffner, a space enthusiast with substantial financial investment — is to inhabit the ISS for approximately eight solar cycles before plummeting back to our terrestrial homeland in their SpaceX Crew Dragon space capsule, aptly named 'Freedom.'

Ax-2 marks a colossal stride for commercial space exploration. It is the second civilian astronaut mission to the ISS following Axiom's Ax-1 in April 2022 and represents a significant leap for Saudi Arabia, aspiring to propel its influence beyond Earth's confines.

Mishaal Ashemimry, a distinguished Saudi-American aerospace engineer and a special adviser to the CEO of the Saudi Space Commission, while also championing diversity at the International Astronautical Federation, shed light on the importance of Ax-2 for Saudi Arabia and its dreams of a radiant future in space exploration. In addition, she discussed the prospects of employing the conditions in space, especially microgravity, for research in various fields like pharmaceuticals. The insights generated would not only advance those fields but also significantly enhance the human capital and technical prowess in Saudi Arabia.