サウジ宇宙飛行士２人、民間ミッションでＩＳＳに出発　滞在は同国初

【ケープカナベラル（米国）ＡＦＰ＝時事】米フロリダ州ケネディ宇宙センターから２１日、サウジアラビア人宇宙飛行士２人が搭乗したロケットが、国際宇宙ステーション（ＩＳＳ）へ向けて打ち上げられた。サウジの飛行士がＩＳＳに滞在するのは初めて。（写真は「アクシオム・ミッション２」の民間人４人を乗せた宇宙船を搭載し、米フロリダ州のケネディ宇宙センターから打ち上げられるスペースＸの「ファルコン９」ロケット）
　米宇宙企業アクシオムスペースが企画したＩＳＳへの２回目の民間ミッションで、「アクシオム・ミッション２（Ａｘ－２）」と称する。
　サウジアラビアからは、同国初の女性宇宙飛行士として乳がん研究者のラヤナ・バルナウィ氏と、戦闘機操縦士のアリ・アルカルニ氏が参加。さらに米航空宇宙局（ＮＡＳＡ）の元飛行士の女性と米実業家の男性が搭乗した。
　４人を乗せた宇宙開発企業スペースＸの「ファルコン９」ロケットは２１日午後５時３７分（日本時間２２日午前６時３７分）に打ち上げられた。
　到着予定は２２日午前９時２５分（日本時間同午後１０時２５分）で、約１０日間にわたりＩＳＳに滞在する。
　バルナウィさんは先に行われた記者会見で「サウジ女性初の宇宙飛行士であること、（中東）地域を代表することは、大きな喜びであり、素晴らしい栄誉です」と語っていた。ＩＳＳから中東の子どもらと交流し、経験を共有できることを楽しみにしているとも述べている。
　サウジアラビアにとって、宇宙への進出は初めてではない。１９８５年には王族で空軍飛行士でもあるサルマン・ビン・アブドルアジズ王子が、米国による宇宙ミッションに参加した。
　２０１８年には「サウジ宇宙委員会」を設立。昨年、自国の宇宙飛行士を宇宙に送る計画を立ち上げた。
　Ａｘ－２は、アクシオムスペースがＮＡＳＡと共同企画した２回目のミッション。
　同社は民間向けの宇宙旅行を数百万ドル（数億円）で提供。飛行士（旅行者）の訓練をはじめ、移動手段、宇宙滞在の手配などを行っている。【翻訳編集ＡＦＰＢＢＮｅｗｓ】
〔ＡＦＰ＝時事〕（2023/05/22-17:22）

The second-ever private mission to the International Space Station (ISS), organized by Axiom Space, blasted off from the southern US state of Florida Sunday, carrying the first two Saudi astronauts to travel to the orbiting laboratory.
Rayyanah Barnawi, a breast cancer researcher, is the first Saudi woman to voyage into space and is joined on the mission by fellow Saudi Ali Al-Qarni, a fighter pilot.
The Axiom Mission 2 (Ax-2) crew took off aboard a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket from the Kennedy Space Center in Cape Canaveral at 5:37 pm (2137 GMT).
The team also includes Peggy Whitson, a former NASA astronaut, who will be making her fourth flight to the ISS, and John Shoffner, a businessman from Tennessee, who is piloting.
Thanks for putting your trust in the Falcon 9 team, SpaceX chief engineer Bill Gerstenmaier told the crew minutes after lift-off.
Hope you enjoyed the ride to space. Have a great trip on Dragon, he added, referring to the spacecraft.
Welcome home to zero-g, Peggy.
The crew is due to spend around 10 days on board the ISS, arriving around 9:25 am (1325 GMT) Monday.
Being the first Saudi woman astronaut, representing the region, it's a great pleasure and honor that I'm very happy to carry, Barnawi said at a recent press conference.
She added that, aside from the research she will carry out on board, she was looking forward to sharing her experience on the ISS with kids.
Being able to see their faces when they see astronauts from their own region for the first time is very thrilling, she said.
A career fighter pilot, Al-Qarni said he has always had the passion of exploring the unknown and just admiring the sky and the stars.
It is a great opportunity for me to pursue this kind of passion that I have, and now maybe just fly among the stars.
- 'Just the beginning' -
The mission is not Saudi Arabia's first foray into space.
In 1985, Prince Sultan bin Salman bin Abdulaziz, an air force pilot, took part in a US-organized space voyage.
I reflect on my experience in space many years ago, and I am happy that Saudi Arabia has returned to space once again, he told AFP at a watch party for the Ax-2 launch in Riyadh.
God willing, this is just the beginning.
The space mission involving a Saudi woman is the latest move by the country, where women only gained the right to drive a few years ago, to revamp its ultraconservative image.
The oil-rich Gulf kingdom established the Saudi Space Commission in 2018 and launched a program last year to send astronauts into space.
Scores of flag-waving Saudis gathered at the launch party in Riyadh beneath a massive white tent for the blast-off countdown.
Jawaher al-Sabhan, who came to the event with her 11-year-old son and 9-year-old daughter, said the moment gave her indescribable feelings.
I love space and exploration in general, and I love my children knowing about space and the advantages of exploring it, she said.
- Experiments -
The four-member team is set to carry out about 20 experiments while on the ISS.
One of them involves studying the behavior of stem cells in zero gravity.
They will join seven others already aboard the ISS: three Russians, three Americans, and Emirati astronaut Sultan al-Neyadi, who last month became the first Arab national to go on a spacewalk.
Ax-2 is the second Axiom Space mission in partnership with ISS keyholder NASA.
The private space company offers the voyages for sums that run into the millions of dollars.
Axiom Space also oversees training for the astronauts, charters their means of transport, and manages their stay in space.
The company carried out its first private mission to the ISS in April 2022, sending three businessmen and former astronaut Michael Lopez-Alegria into orbit for 17 days as part of Ax-1.
- Private space stations -
For Axiom Space, these missions are a first step toward an ambitious goal: the construction of its own space station, with the first module expected to launch in 2025.
The station would first be attached to the ISS before separating and orbiting independently.
NASA plans to retire the ISS around 2030 and to instead send astronauts to private stations, which will also host their own clients, leading the US space agency to encourage the development of programs by several companies.
Russia recently agreed to extend its use of the ISS until 2028, having threatened an earlier pullout last year as ties unraveled between the Kremlin and the West over Moscow's invasion of Ukraine.