SpaceX Sends Private Citizens and Saudi Astronauts to ISS on Commercial Flight.
Saudi Arabia sponsored a private space mission that sent the first Arab woman astronaut, Rayyanah Barnawi, and fellow Saudi Ali al-Qarni to the International Space Station (ISS) on board a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket. Peggy Whitson, a former NASA astronaut, and John Shoffner, a businessman, also joined the mission. The team will spend just over a week on the ISS before returning home. Axiom Space organised the mission, which is the second private flight to the ISS. The company plans to start adding its own rooms to the station in another few years, eventually removing them to form a stand-alone outpost available for hire.