On Thursday, Saudi Arabia announced it would launch a training program for its astronauts and send them to space next year, and a woman will be a part of the cosmonaut team.
The Saudi kingdom is doing everything in its power to promote science and technology as an integral part of its Vision 2030 plan. Saudi Arabia’s Vision 2030 is meant to boost and transform its economy and reduce its dependence on oil.
The ambitious plan led by Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman is calling for more women to be allowed into the workforce, which men dominate. He advocates for more integration of women in the traditional Muslim country as only five years ago, in 2018, the country lifted a ban on women driving.
The Saudi Space Commission said that the Saudi Astronaut Space Program is a fundamental part of the country’s Vision 2030 plan. The program had planned to train and send Saudi astronauts into space with a mission to help serve humanity better.
The commission added that one of the astronauts sent to space would be a woman, and her space mission will be a historical landmark for Saudi Arabia.
In 2018, for the first time, Saudi women were allowed to sit in the driver’s seat and steer their way through the country roads and cities. Saudi was the only remaining country that did not allow women to drive in the 21st century. Women had to rely on men to drive them to school, to buy groceries, go to work, etc.
King Salman lifted the ban amid criticism from many ultra-conservatives and after a long-standing battle by female activists who fought for women to be granted the right to drive. Since the ban was lifted, the criticism has died out, and the people against it seemed to be keeping their opinions to themselves.
Prince Sultan bin Salman was the first Arab Muslim to go to space. He is the Crown Prince’s half-brother and a former air force pilot. In 1985, the prince was one of the seven crew members in NASA’s Discovery mission. He served as the head of the Saudi Space Commission for four years, and last year he was appointed as an advisor to King Salman.
Saudi Arabia’s Vision 2030 plan details elaborate and strategic ways to transform the country’s economy. Some of the goals detailed in the plan include turning the country’s $160 million Public Investment Fund into a $2 trillion wealth fund, increasing Saudi’s production of military equipment, raising state revenue that does not come from oil from $44 billion to $266 billion, increasing women in the workforce by about 10%, listing Aramco company – with the world’s largest oil reserves – on an international stock exchange and reducing unemployment.
The United Arab Emirates (UAE), Saudi Arabia’s neighbor, launched a probe to Mars in February 2021. The UAE has the leading space program of all the Arab countries, and in November this year, the country plans on launching its first lunar rover. The success of the lunar mission will put the UAE in the ranks of the US, China and Russia, which are the only nations that have a spacecraft on the moon.
