<div style="text-align: justify; "><b style="font-size: 1rem;">A SpaceX capsule carrying two Saudi astronauts docked with the International Space Station on Monday, as part of a private mission chartered by Axiom Space.</b><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Rayyanah Barnawi, a scientist who became the first Saudi woman to go into space, and Ali Al-Qarni, a trained fighter pilot, are the first two people from their country to fly to the orbital outpost.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">"Greetings from outer space, I'm here not only representing myself, but representing the hopes and dreams of everyone back home, everyone in the region," said Barnawi.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">"We really are excited to be here," added mission commander Peggy Whitson, a former NASA astronaut who made the voyage three times in the past.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">"It was a great launch, a great ride, we had a lot of fun on the way up and we're really excited to get a lot of work done up here."</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">The fourth crew member is American businessman John Shoffner.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">About two hours after docking, the quartet entered the ISS, where they joined the seven astronauts -- three Russians, three Americans and an Emirati -- already on board.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">The SpaceX rocket blasted off from Florida on Sunday, and the trip to the ISS, which orbits around 250 miles (400 kilometers) above the Earth, lasted about 16 hours.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">This mission, named Ax-2, is the second fully private mission to visit the space station, following a first in April 2022. The members of Ax-2 will stay about 10 days and carry out some 20 experiments.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">NASA is trying to seed a commercial space economy in the region of space known as "Low Earth Orbit," allowing it to focus its own energies on missions deeper into the solar system and beyond.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">The Axiom Mission 1 launched last April, with the seats for three private astronauts accompanying an Axiom-employed astronaut reported to cost $55 million each. The cost of seats for Ax-2 has not been disclosed. AFP</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">bnbd24/kh</div>