Axiom Space has set up its second space missionary station to the International Space Station ( ISS ) . This is the third secret missionary station to the ISS and includes among others Rayyanah Barnawi , a biomedical research worker and also the Saudi Space Commission ’s first distaff astronaut . And now she ’s is also the 600th person to orbit the Earth .
Axiom-2 sees former NASA astronautPeggy Whitsoncommanding the mission , together with pilot John Shoffner , and Ali AlQarni – also of the Saudi Space Commission – being the first foreign mission specialist . Shoffner and AlQarni are also on their first flights , so in order they are the 598th and 599th hoi polloi to orb Earth . Barnawi , being mission specialist number 2 , gets the round telephone number .
Now , it is crucial to accentuate that we are talking about last around the planet . If you desire the reckoning for all the people who have crossed the Kármán line – the arbitrary boundary between Earth and space at 100 kilometers ( 61 miles ) – then you need to add the 32 multitude who flee on boardBlue Origin’sNew Shepard . Those flights were suborbital , involve people up into space and then straight back down .
“ I never thought that I will ever be going to space but at the same time , it feels like a dream come straight ! It ’s an consuming feeling , of path , ” Barnawi said ahead of the launching in avideo . “ It candidly experience like I am representing all Saudi Arabian ' ambitions . All female person ' and all researchers ' as well ! It ’s a big honor to be able-bodied to go to blank space and at the same time do the things that you love the most . ”
The Axiom-2 mission is 12 daylight long , but it is pack withresearch undertaking . Some of them concentre on rare atmospheric phenomena , such asspritesand jets . Others are on the astronauts themselves , like testing suits that extenuate the outcome of microgravity . But there are also several experiments in the theatre of operations of life skill , such as the ones on the outcome ofmicrogravityon shank cells and cancer . Those are Barnawi ’s areas of specialization . After her master ’s , she lick for nine years on cancer stem cell research at the King Faisal Specialist Hospital and Research Centre .
“ Rayyanah is an amazing scientist . She ’s done stem cell research and boob cancer research and we are really delirious to have her on instrument panel the space station doing some of the same types of thing in space , ” Commander Whitson said .
Axiom-2 is gestate to come back down to Earth in other June , splashing down in the Atlantic Ocean .
[ H / T : Collect Space ]
