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The 270-mile-high (430-kilometer-high) docking puts the space station population at 11, representing not only Saudi Arabia and the U.S., but the United Arab Emirates and Russia.
Saudi Arabia's government is picking up the multimillion-dollar tab for its first female astronaut, Rayyanah Barnawi, a stem cell researcher, and fighter pilot Ali al-Qarni.
John Shoffner, a Knoxville, Tennessee, businessman who started a car racing team, is paying his own way. Retired NASA astronaut Peggy Whitson is their chaperone. She now works for Axiom Space, the Houston company that organized the 10-day trip, its second to the space station.
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The crew of the SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket, with the Crew Dragon spacecraft, from left, Saudi Arabian astronaut Rayyanah Barnawi, commandeer Peggy Whitson, pilot John Shoffner and Saudi Arabian astronaut Ali al-Qarni arrive at the Kennedy Space Center in Cape Canaveral, Fla., before their launch to the International Space Station, Sunday, May 21, 2023. Credit: AP Photo/John Raoux -
A SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket, with the Dragon capsule and a crew of four private astronauts, lifts off from Pad 39A at the Kennedy Space Center in Cape Canaveral, Fla., Sunday, May 21, 2023. Credit: AP Photo/John Raoux -
Saudi Arabian astronaut Rayyanah Barnawi waves to family and friends as she arrives at the Kennedy Space Center in Cape Canaveral, Fla., for a scheduled launch Sunday, May 21, 2023. Credit: AP Photo/John Raoux
The company cited ticket prices of $55 million each for last year's private trip by three businessmen, but won't say how much the latest seats cost.
Only one other Saudi has flown before in space, a prince who rode on NASA's shuttle Discovery in 1985.
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