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Saudi Arabia’s Barnawi, Al-Qarni to Head to Space in 2023

Saudi astronauts Mariam Fardous, Rayyanah Barnawi, Ali Al-Qarni and Ali Al-Ghamdi (Asharq Al-Awsat)
Saudi astronauts Mariam Fardous, Rayyanah Barnawi, Ali Al-Qarni and Ali Al-Ghamdi (Asharq Al-Awsat)
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Saudi Arabia’s Barnawi, Al-Qarni to Head to Space in 2023

Saudi astronauts Mariam Fardous, Rayyanah Barnawi, Ali Al-Qarni and Ali Al-Ghamdi (Asharq Al-Awsat)
Saudi astronauts Mariam Fardous, Rayyanah Barnawi, Ali Al-Qarni and Ali Al-Ghamdi (Asharq Al-Awsat)

Saudi Arabia will soon send its first female and male astronauts to the International Space Station. The step aims to boost Saudi capabilities in human spaceflight geared towards serving humanity and benefiting from the promising opportunities offered by the space industry

Rayyanah Barnawi and Ali Al-Qarni will blast off into outer space in the second quarter of this year.

The Saudi astronauts will join the crew of the AX-2 space mission and will advance Saudi Arabia’s contribution to scientific research in space technology, health, and sustainability.

The space mission is scheduled to launch from the USA to the International Space Station.

In addition, the Saudi Human Spaceflight Program includes the training of two more astronauts on all mission requirements. They have been named as Mariam Fardous and Ali AlGamdi.

The Chairman of the Saudi Space Commission (SSC), Abdullah Bin Amer Al-Swaha, said that the Kingdom’s leadership is keen to give unlimited support to the space program.

This support aims to increase graduates’ interest in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics, and to nurture innovation in space sciences, added Al-Sawaha.

It also aims to improve the Kingdom’s capacity to conduct its own research, which will benefit the industry and the nation, and develop human capital by attracting skilled talents.

Sending astronauts into space is a symbol of the Kingdom’s global competitiveness in fields of technology, engineering, research, and innovation.

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Varieties

Young Mammoth Remains Found Nearly Intact in Siberian Permafrost

Researchers stand behind glass fencing as they show the carcass of a baby mammoth, which is estimated to be over 50,000 years old and was found in the Siberian permafrost in the Batagaika crater in the Verkhoyansky district of Yakutia - Reuters
Researchers stand behind glass fencing as they show the carcass of a baby mammoth, which is estimated to be over 50,000 years old and was found in the Siberian permafrost in the Batagaika crater in the Verkhoyansky district of Yakutia - Reuters
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Young Mammoth Remains Found Nearly Intact in Siberian Permafrost

Researchers stand behind glass fencing as they show the carcass of a baby mammoth, which is estimated to be over 50,000 years old and was found in the Siberian permafrost in the Batagaika crater in the Verkhoyansky district of Yakutia - Reuters
Researchers stand behind glass fencing as they show the carcass of a baby mammoth, which is estimated to be over 50,000 years old and was found in the Siberian permafrost in the Batagaika crater in the Verkhoyansky district of Yakutia - Reuters

Researchers in Siberia are conducting tests on a juvenile mammoth whose remarkably well-preserved remains were discovered in thawing permafrost after more than 50,000 years.

The creature, resembling a small elephant with a trunk, was recovered from the Batagaika crater, a huge depression more than 80 metres (260 feet) deep which is widening as a result of climate change.

The carcass, weighing more than 110 kg (240 pounds), was brought to the surface on an improvized stretcher, said Maxim Cherpasov, head of the Lazarev Mammoth Museum Laboratory in the city of Yakutsk, according to Reuters.

He said the mammoth was probably a little over a year old when it died, but tests would enable the scientists to confirm this more accurately. The fact that its head and trunk had survived was particularly unusual.

"As a rule, the part that thaws out first, especially the trunk, is often eaten by modern predators or birds. Here, for example, even though the forelimbs have already been eaten, the head is remarkably well preserved," Cherpasov told Reuters.

It is the latest of a series of spectacular discoveries in the Russian permafrost. Last month, scientists in the same vast northeastern region - known as Sakha or Yakutia - showed off the 32,000-year-old remains of a tiny sabre-toothed cat cub, while earlier this year a 44,000-year-old wolf carcass was uncovered.