Sgt4succsess SMACIN GRACEFULL TEAM SpaceX sends Saudi astronauts, including first Arab woman, to ISS Sponsored by Saudi Arabia, Rayyanah Barnawi, a breast cancer researcher, is the first Arab woman to go to space. ADVERTISEMENT A private rocket carrying the first Arab woman astronaut has blasted off on a mission to the International Space Station (ISS). Rayyanah Barnawi, a breast cancer researcher from Saudi Arabia, was joined on Sunday’s mission by fellow Saudi Ali al-Qarni, a fighter pilot. ADVERTISEMENT The pair are the first Saudi astronauts to voyage into space in decades. They took off on board a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket from the Kennedy Space Center at Cape Canaveral in the southern United States at 5:37pm local time (21:37 GMT). ADVERTISEMENT The team also includes Peggy Whitson, a former NASA astronaut who will be making her fourth flight to the