JEDDAH: “Space: The final frontier,” are words many Star Trek fans worldwide know by heart. Though humanity is not yet in the year 2265, it’s an exciting time for the space industry as breakthrough aerospace discoveries are being made, a booming space economy is being established, and mankind is off on its next big adventure: outer space. Humans have come a long way since the Sputnik satellite’s orbit around the Earth in 1957. Space exploration is reaching new heights today, exploring tourism ventures, private investment, and finding solutions to our Earthly problems through scientific experiments. Axiom 2 mission patch. (Supplied) With time and two superpowers’ unprecedented successes and failures, the US Soviet space race dominated space exploration and planted a seed, or flag, for other nations to follow. After joining forces, the two superpowers built the largest structure in space, the International Space Station, but more recently they have been giving way to new players. Now, 77 government space agencies with more than 600 astronauts, cosmonauts and taikonauts have made it beyond Earth’s orbit, with two more Saudi astronauts due to head into space on May 8. Saudi astronaut and scientist Rayyanah Barnawi and mission specialist Ali Alqarni, graduates of the Kingdom’s inaugural national astronaut program, will join Peggy Whitson and John P. Shoffner on the SpaceX Falcon 9 Rocket aboard a Dragon spacecraft as part of the Axiom Mission 2 (Ax 2) to the ISS. On Thursday, Axiom Space, a leading provider of human spaceflight services to the ISS and a developer of human rated space infrastructure, hosted a virtual press conference on the upcoming mission, with leaders from NASA, SpaceX, and the Saudi Space Commission. “On this mission, the most important thing we can do for the (Saudi) human spaceflight program is microgravity research and STEM outreach. From our side on the Saudi Space Commission, we are investigating 11 groundbreaking microgravity experiments. And we are also capitalizing on this opportunity to have an outreach with three experiments,” Mishaal Ashemimry, microgravity research lead at the Saudi Space Commission, said during the conference. “The three experiments are meant to engage over 12,000 students across 47 different locations in Saudi Arabia, the goal of which is to have them participate in this mission, as well as enlighten them and plant the seed of curiosity in every child across Saudi Arabia, hopefully becoming future astronauts and future scientists that can enable us to do missions to the Moon and eventually Mars,” she added. To prepare themselves for the rigors of their 37 hour spaceflight, the crew members who have not undergone the rigors of NASA training train specifically for the upcoming mission. “The training that NASA astronauts receive starts with basic training, where they learn quite a bit about astronomics and other similar courses,” Axiom Space CEO and president Michael Suffredini told Arab News during the conference. Signing of the partnership deal between Axiom Space and the Saudi Space Commission to send the first female Saudi astronaut to space. In the picture are Michael T. Suffredini (left), president & CEO of Axiom Space; Abdullah bin Amer Alswaha (center), Saudi Minister of Communications and Information Technology; and Dr. Saudi Al Tamimi, governor of the Saudi Communication, Space and Technology Commission and Acting CEO for Saudi Space Commission. (Supplied) He added that NASA astronauts also train extensively on ISS systems and other systems required on the station. “Our astronauts trained for these particular missions are trained very specifically for the things they re going to do in orbit and the systems they’ll utilize,” Suffredini said. “The reason why we brought in a professional astronaut, like Peggy in this case, (is that) they’re the ones that have to help them when they come across things that they’re not comfortable with or not sure about. Instead, we’re able to let the private astronauts train a little differently and focus on their mission, because we have a professional astronaut flying with them.”

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JEDDAH: “Space: The final frontier,” are words many Star Trek fans worldwide know by heart. Though humanity is not yet in the year 2265, it’s an exciting time for the space industry as breakthrough aerospace discoveries are being made, a booming space economy is being established, and mankind is off on its next big adventure: outer space. Humans have come a long way since the Sputnik satellite’s orbit around the Earth in 1957. Space exploration is reaching new heights today, exploring tourism ventures, private investment, and finding solutions to our Earthly problems through scientific experiments. Axiom 2 mission patch. (Supplied) With time and two superpowers’ unprecedented successes and failures, the US Soviet space race dominated space exploration and planted a seed, or flag, for other nations to follow. After joining forces, the two superpowers built the largest structure in space, the International Space Station, but more recently they have been giving way to new players. Now, 77 government space agencies with more than 600 astronauts, cosmonauts and taikonauts have made it beyond Earth’s orbit, with two more Saudi astronauts due to head into space on May 8. Saudi astronaut and scientist Rayyanah Barnawi and mission specialist Ali Alqarni, graduates of the Kingdom’s inaugural national astronaut program, will join Peggy Whitson and John P. Shoffner on the SpaceX Falcon 9 Rocket aboard a Dragon spacecraft as part of the Axiom Mission 2 (Ax 2) to the ISS. On Thursday, Axiom Space, a leading provider of human spaceflight services to the ISS and a developer of human rated space infrastructure, hosted a virtual press conference on the upcoming mission, with leaders from NASA, SpaceX, and the Saudi Space Commission. “On this mission, the most important thing we can do for the (Saudi) human spaceflight program is microgravity research and STEM outreach. From our side on the Saudi Space Commission, we are investigating 11 groundbreaking microgravity experiments. And we are also capitalizing on this opportunity to have an outreach with three experiments,” Mishaal Ashemimry, microgravity research lead at the Saudi Space Commission, said during the conference. “The three experiments are meant to engage over 12,000 students across 47 different locations in Saudi Arabia, the goal of which is to have them participate in this mission, as well as enlighten them and plant the seed of curiosity in every child across Saudi Arabia, hopefully becoming future astronauts and future scientists that can enable us to do missions to the Moon and eventually Mars,” she added. To prepare themselves for the rigors of their 37 hour spaceflight, the crew members who have not undergone the rigors of NASA training train specifically for the upcoming mission. “The training that NASA astronauts receive starts with basic training, where they learn quite a bit about astronomics and other similar courses,” Axiom Space CEO and president Michael Suffredini told Arab News during the conference. Signing of the partnership deal between Axiom Space and the Saudi Space Commission to send the first female Saudi astronaut to space. In the picture are Michael T. Suffredini (left), president & CEO of Axiom Space; Abdullah bin Amer Alswaha (center), Saudi Minister of Communications and Information Technology; and Dr. Saudi Al Tamimi, governor of the Saudi Communication, Space and Technology Commission and Acting CEO for Saudi Space Commission. (Supplied) He added that NASA astronauts also train extensively on ISS systems and other systems required on the station. “Our astronauts trained for these particular missions are trained very specifically for the things they re going to do in orbit and the systems they’ll utilize,” Suffredini said. “The reason why we brought in a professional astronaut, like Peggy in this case, (is that) they’re the ones that have to help them when they come across things that they’re not comfortable with or not sure about. Instead, we’re able to let the private astronauts train a little differently and focus on their mission, because we have a professional astronaut flying with them.”