Rayyanah Barnawi

Rayyanah Barnawi is the first Saudi and Arab Muslim female astronaut representing the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia in the space sector. She is a member of the crew for the AX-2 mission to the International Space Station (ISS), which is the second dedicated crew mission to the ISS.

Rayyanah Barnawi is a laboratory research specialist. She earned the first honor rank for a Master's degree in Biomedical Sciences from King Faisal University in the Kingdom, and before that, she earned a Bachelor's degree in Reproductive Science, Genetic Engineering, and Tissue Development from the University of Otago in New Zealand.

Rayyanah has experience in stem cell and tissue re-engineering programs, cancer stem cell research, developing research protocols, discovering new techniques, and managing breast cancer research projects.

She was also interested in scientific experiments and research, leading her to apply for the Kingdom's astronaut program as an astronaut to conduct further research in a zero-gravity environment.

The Saudi Space Agency (previously the Saudi Space Commission) selected Rayyanah Barnawi and her colleague Ali al-Qarni to represent the Kingdom as astronauts in the Kingdom's astronaut program. They participated in a scientific mission, accompanied by the crew of the AX-2 space mission. The mission successfully reached the International Space Station (ISS) on Monday, May 22, 2023, at 4:24 PM Makkah al-Mukarramah Time, after approximately sixteen hours from launch at the Kennedy Space Center in Cape Canaveral, Florida.

During the mission, fourteen pioneering scientific and educational research experiments were conducted in a microgravity environment, including three educational experiments involving 12,000 students at forty-seven educational facilities in the Kingdom via satellites, six experiments on the brain and nervous system to understand the impact of the low-gravity and high-radiation space environment on the brain and nervous system, testing the functions of human organs and vital systems in a microgravity environment, and four experiments on immune cells to determine the impact of space missions on human health, along with experiments on cloud seeding to increase rainfall rates.

The achievement of the Saudi space mission contributes to one of the goals of Saudi Vision 2030, by building human resources and promoting a culture of research, development, and innovation. Rayyanah Barnawi and Ali al-Qarni's space mission reinforces the Kingdom's ambition in the future of industry and scientific research, encourages graduates in the fields of science, technology, engineering, and mathematics, and develops human capital by attracting talents and developing skills and competencies to enhance the Kingdom's role in the space sector development, and to invest this research in the service of humanity.