Space station welcomes 2 Saudi visitors, including kingdom's 1st female astronaut

[BumRushDaShow]

Source: ABC News

CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. -- The International Space Station rolled out the welcome mat Monday for two Saudi visitors, including the kingdom's first female astronaut.

SpaceX's chartered flight arrived at the orbiting lab less than 16 hours after blasting off from Florida. The four guests will spend just over a week there, before returning to Earth in their capsule.

The 270-mile-high (430-kilometer-high) docking puts the space station population at 11, representing not only Saudi Arabia and the U.S., but the United Arab Emirates and Russia. .

Saudi Arabia's government is picking up the multimillion-dollar tab for its first female astronaut, Rayyanah Barnawi, a stem cell researcher, and fighter pilot Ali al-Qarni. John Shoffner, a Knoxville, Tennessee, businessman who started a car racing team, is paying his own way. Retired NASA astronaut Peggy Whitson is their chaperone. She now works for Axiom Space, the Houston company that organized the 10-day trip, its second to the space station.

Read more: https://abcnews.go.com/Technology/wireStory/space-station-welcomes-2-saudi-visitors-including-kingdoms-99508379

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She was literally bubbling over.

There are now 11 people on the station including 3 Russian cosmonauts (the 3 at the bottom row center-right in the screencap). The cosmonauts are supposed to depart in September, and that will be it for Russia on the station.

[pandr32]

1. Is she wearing head covering in space?

It's weird to think our religious, political, and other world ties extend out to space when we do.
Wouldn't it be great to shed those things as we leave earth and be open to the expanse?

[BumRushDaShow]

3. Yup she is

Seemed to almost appear like a turban as it's not a scarf tied around her neck (but could be a modified scarf tied like a turban).

[Polybius]

6. Hmm

I'm not seeing anyone in a hijab in the op's pic. Unless it's blending it with the background.

[BumRushDaShow]

8. She's not wearing a hijab, which is "formal"

She is wearing something akin to a turban (or scarf tied as one). The above pic was actually caught when she first egressed into the station and was trying to adjust it. She was fiddling with it when she was on the Dragon capsule.

I did a zoom and crop of another pic and you can maybe see it better.

[pandr32]

11. Excellent pictures that show it more clearly.

[BumRushDaShow]

12. I have some/a couple muslim families as neighbors

and the women do wear hijabs (no hair showing) and one wears a full burka (just an eye slit). Their young daughters wear sortof a modified hijab/scarf that is usually tied in the back while playing outside.

[pandr32]

14. So many seem to accept it and see it as part of their identity.

Patriarchy and religion are hand in hand.
Sigh. We have a long road ahead.

[pandr32]

10. It appears specially designed for her uniform.

[BumRushDaShow]

13. Probably

They were switching back and forth between the NASA & SpaceX command feeds whenever they weren't showing the capsule video (or had lost that video), so I didn't really get to see when she removed her space suit. I expect she didn't have it on while in it as it could have interfered with sensors and whatnot but may have put it on as soon as she took the helmet off. I expect it is being done for her country's viewing audience that insists on austerity (although we know Saudi women don't wear that in the house).

[pandr32]

15. You are likely correct about the at home audience.

Saudi women are free in their homes, but not in space.

[BumRushDaShow]

18. The company that sponsored these astronauts (U.S. company Axiom Space)

had a bio of her and a couple other pics - https://www.axiomspace.com/astronaut/rayyanah-barnawi

You can see what the head-covering looks like much better -



And the training/promotional vid has her in both - the hijab and her modified covering -

[pandr32]

22. Head covering or not...

a Saudi woman is in space. It is a plus.

[BumRushDaShow]

23. True

They can drive now.

What is something to keep an eye on though, is this unlikely alliance (knowing in reality, it has basically been a 1300 year rift) - https://apnews.com/article/china-iran-saudi-diplomatic-relations-beijing-d12dc5dc4049052c6228caceaa2a2b9f

[Warpy]

5. Undoubtedly, the hijab isn't that difficult to maintain in zero gravity

and would keep her hair corralled, but I'm sure she left the full abaya at home.

[BumRushDaShow]

9. It's not a hijab

because it's not a scarf that covers her head AND wraps around her neck.

[mainer]

2. the Saudi Space twitter account shows her without head covering

Link to tweet

[BumRushDaShow]

4. She definitely has one on up there right now

(have been watching since docking and through to the ceremony)

She's been trying to keep it from moving around in microgravity too much and had to readjust when she did her egress into the station.

[paleotn]

7. 3 trained astronauts and a boob from Knoxville as ballast?

I still don't like the post NASA space program. This isn't a Disney ride like Everest.

[groundloop]

16. Yep..... it pisses me off that rich tourists are using the ISS as their playground

My tax money helped pay for the ISS, it was put up there to conduct science. Why in hell are we letting rich tourists take up valuable time and resources?

This isn't the first time either.

[BumRushDaShow]

19. Well 3 of the 4 are astronauts, scientists, and/or military

It's just "the boob from Knoxville" who is the non-specialist.

[erronis]

17. Did they come bearing bone saws? Just in case someone says something bad

about the princeling?

[Bird Lady]

20. This won't be popular but

I fail to understand why we play nice with the Saudis. They are a blood thirsty and brutal people, see what they did to the American news man. Not people to trust.

[BumRushDaShow]

21. Well to put it into perspective

broad-brushing an entire country's people because of their criminal "royal" (in quotes) family, is no different than doing the same to the U.S. because of what "the U.S. people" (in quotes) have done, if you use that thought process -

[Bird Lady]

24. I never claimed we are not what we would want. I would look at your photos and ask yourself

Who exactly was in charge when USA started doing those things to prisoners? I'll give you a hint, GWB
Just because other people treat prisoners with such disrespect and care, does not mean
it is acceptable at anytime.

[BumRushDaShow]

25. I'll tell you this goes back to the founding of this country

when my ancestors were treated to stuff like this -



or this -



or this -



So when the RW loons whine about "Critical Race Theory", it's obvious that others need some lessons from it as well because this has been going on well before England (as the British Empire) "installed" the Saudi Royal Family as rulers of the current boundaries of trhat country via the Treaties of Darin and Jeddah beginning around the start of WWI and through to the 1930s - https://web.archive.org/web/20160703064040/http://www.ibnsaud.info/main/3338.htm

And as a note, George Floyd's murder from a fucker kneeling on his neck in that last picture, was NOT under "GWB".