In this image from NASA TV, Ali al-Qarni (2nd L) and Rayyanah Barnawi of Saudi Arabia (2nd R) have a drink two cosmonauts in the International Space Station, May 22, 2023. /AP
SpaceX's Dragon spacecraft carrying four private astronauts docked to the International Space Station (ISS) on Monday.
The spacecraft lifted from Launch Complex 39A at NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida at 5:37 p.m. Eastern Time Sunday. The crew docked to the ISS at 9:12 a.m. Monday.
The mission, code-named Ax-2, is Axiom Space's second all-private astronaut mission to the ISS following the first mission in 2022.
The four-member crew include mission commander Peggy Whitson, pilot John Shoffner from the United States and two mission specialists Ali Alqarni and Rayyanah Barnawi from the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia.
The crew is scheduled to spend about eight days on the ISS, performing over 20 science and technology experiments in areas such as human physiology and physical sciences to help expand knowledge to benefit life on Earth in areas such as healthcare, materials, technology development, and enable industrial advances.
The four astronauts are expected to depart the space station on May 30, for a return to Earth and splashdown at a landing site off the coast of Florida.
L-R: The crew of the SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket, 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, Florida, before their launch to the International Space Station, May 21, 2023. /AP
The 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.
UAE's astronaut Sultan al-Neyadi greeted them with dates, a traditional Arab welcome.
"This shows how space brings everyone together," said Saudi Arabia's first female astronaut, Rayyanah Barnawi, a stem cell researcher. "I'm going to live this experience to the max."
Saudi fighter pilot Ali al-Qarni dedicated the visit to everyone back home. "This mission is not just for me and Rayyanah. This mission is also for the people with ambition and dreams."
The Saudi government is picking up the multimillion-dollar tab for both of them.
John Shoffner, a Knoxville, Tennessee, businessman who started a sports 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.
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.
(With input from agencies)