First Arab woman in orbit, other astronauts, head for splashdown

An all-private astronaut team of two Americans and two Saudis, including the first Arab woman ever sent into orbit, has headed for splashdown off Florida's coast, capping an eight-day research mission aboard the International Space Station [ISS].

The SpaceX Crew Dragon vessel carrying the foursome, undocked from the ISS late on Tuesday morning to begin its 12-hour return flight.

If all goes as planned, the capsule will parachute into the Gulf of Mexico off Panama City, Florida, at about 11 pm EDT following a fiery re-entry through Earth's atmosphere.

The return flight concludes the second space station mission organised, equipped and trained entirely at private expense by Axiom Space, a seven-year-old Houston-based company headed by NASA's former ISS programme manager.

The Axiom 2 crew was led by retired NASA astronaut Peggy Whitson, 63, who holds the US record for most time spent in orbit, having logged 665 days in space during three long-duration missions to the ISS, including 10 spacewalks.

Ax-2's designated pilot was John Shoffner, 67, an aviator, race car driver and investor from Alaska.

Rounding out the crew as mission specialists were the first two astronauts from Saudi Arabia ever to fly aboard a private spacecraft — Ali Alqarni, 31, a fighter pilot for the Royal Saudi Air Force, and Rayyanah Barnawi, 34, a biomedical scientist in cancer stem-cell research.

Barnawi is the first woman from the Arab world ever launched into Earth orbit and the first Saudi woman to fly in space.

In August 2022, Sara Sabry became the first Arab woman and the first Egyptian to fly to space on a brief suborbital ride operated by the Blue Origin astro-tourist venture of Jeff Bezos.