WE HAVE LIFTOFF

SpaceX Rocket Takes Off Carrying First Saudi Woman to Go to Space

The four people on the rocket are expected to dock at the International Space Station, where they will stay for a week before returning to Earth.

A chartered private flight to the International Space Station launched in Florida on Sunday afternoon, using a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket and a Crew Dragon capsule to ferry its four-person crew into orbit. The spacecraft is expected to dock at the station on Monday morning, with those aboard—Saudi astronauts Rayyanah Barnawi and Ali al-Qarni, former NASA astronaut Peggy Whitson, and U.S. businessman John Shoffner—spending just over a week there before splashing back down near Florida. The mission, known as AX-2, is the second such mission organized by space infrastructure developer Axiom Space, and is being led by Whitson. Barnawi, now the first Saudi woman to go to space, and al-Qarni, a Royal Saudi Air Force fighter pilot, had their tickets funded by the Saudi Arabian government. “This is a dream come true for everyone,” Barnawi said before the flight, according to the Associated Press. “Just being able to understand that this is possible. If me and Ali can do it, then they can do it, too.”