CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. — Saudi Arabia’s first astronauts in many years rocketed towards the International Space Station on a chartered multimillion-dollar flight Sunday.

SpaceX launched the ticket-holding crew, led by a retired NASA astronaut now working for the corporate that organized the journey. Also on board: a U.S. businessman who now owns a sports activities automotive racing group.

The 4 ought to attain the area station of their capsule Monday morning; they’ll spend simply over per week there earlier than returning house with a splashdown off the Florida coast.

Rayyanah Barnawi, sponsored by the Saudi Arabian authorities, a stem cell researcher, grew to become the primary lady from the dominion to go to area. She was joined by Ali al-Qarni, a fighter pilot with the Royal Saudi Air Force.

They’re the primary from their nation to experience a rocket since a Saudi prince launched aboard shuttle Discovery in 1985. In a quirk of timing, they’ll be greeted on the station by an astronaut from the United Arab Emirates.

“This is a dream come true for everyone,” Barnawi mentioned earlier than the flight. “Just being able to understand that this is possible. If me and Ali can do it, then they can do it, too.”

Rounding out the visiting crew: John Shoffner of Knoxville, Tenn., a former driver and proprietor of a sports activities automotive racing group that competes in Europe, and commander Peggy Whitson, the station’s first feminine commander who holds the U.S. file for many accrued time in area: 665 days and counting.

“It was a phenomenal ride,” Whitson mentioned after reaching orbit. Her crewmates clapped their palms in pleasure.

It’s the second personal flight to the area station organized by Houston-based Axiom Space. The first was final yr by three businessmen, with one other retired NASA astronaut. The firm plans to begin including its personal rooms to the station in one other few years, ultimately eradicating them to kind a stand-alone outpost obtainable for rent.

Axiom gained’t say how a lot Shoffner and Saudi Arabia are paying for the deliberate 10-day mission. The firm had beforehand cited a ticket value of $55 million every.

NASA’s newest value record exhibits per-person, per-day expenses of $2,000 for meals and up to $1,500 for sleeping luggage and different gear. Need to get your stuff to the area station upfront? Figure roughly $10,000 per pound, the identical charge for trashing it afterward. Need your gadgets again intact? Double the value.

At least the e-mail and video hyperlinks are free.

The visitors could have entry to many of the station as they conduct experiments, {photograph} Earth and chat with schoolchildren again house, demonstrating how kites fly in area when connected to a fan.

After many years of shunning area tourism, NASA now embraces it with two personal missions deliberate a yr. The Russian Space Agency has been doing it, on and off, for many years.

“Our job is to expand what we do in low-Earth orbit across the globe,” mentioned NASA’s area station program supervisor Joel Montalbano.

SpaceX’s first-stage booster landed again at Cape Canaveral eight minutes after liftoff, to be recycled for a future flight.

“It was a very, very exciting day,” particularly seeing the booster return to the launch website, mentioned Axiom’s chief expertise officer, Matt Ondler. Now comes the remainder of the mission, he famous, “all toward a path of what we think the future of low-Earth orbit is.”