Saudi astronauts reach International Space Station, making history

On his part, Al-Qarni said that this moment was "historic not just for me but for every Saudi; I couldn't have done it without the support, the love, [and] the trust from all of you."

He expressed his gratitude to the Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques, King Salman bin Abdel-Aziz, and the Crown Prince and Prime Minister, Prince Mohammad bin Salman, for paving the way for this moment and for "their never-ending empowerment, support, and trust that every Saudi should be proud of."

He added, "As I look outside into space, I cannot help but think that this is just the beginning of a great journey for all us."

The historic mission is part of the Axiom 2 programme and also includes American astronauts, Peggy Whitson and John Shoffner.

Barnawi and Al-Qarni are not the first Arabs to make such a journey. They join Emirati astronaut Sultan Al-Neyadi on the ISS, who is currently on a six-month mission on the ISS – a unique example of cooperation between Russia and the West – which has been orbiting Earth at about 28,000 kilometres per hour since 1998.

Arabs in space

To date, there have been four astronauts of Arab origin, besides Barnawi and Al-Qarni. Prince Sultan ibn Salman of KSA flew in the US Space Shuttle in 1985. 

Syrian astronaut Mohammed Faris made a space flight in 1987, as part of a joint Syrian-Soviet mission.

In 2019, Hazza Al Mansouri of the United Arab Emirates flew in the Soyuz MS-15 spacecraft to the ISS, and in 2023 Al-Neyadi flew to the ISS aboard the SpaceX Dragon crew capsule.

Key developments in space exploration and sciences in the Arab world have been taking place mainly in KSA and UAE. Most other Arab countries rely on terrestrial space observatories only. 

The Saudi Space Commission was founded in 2018 and headed at its inception by Prince Sultan bin Salman. It is tasked with regulating anything related to space, including security.

It regulates Saudi satellites and spacecrafts, develops space-related infrastructure, oversees space missions, upskills space-related personnel, beefs up space security, and cooperates with similar national and international organisations, all as part of developing and applying the National Space Strategy.

The UAE's Space Agency set up a similar organisation in 2008 and its Hope Probe reached the orbit of Mars in 2021, having been launched a year earlier.

When the UAE set course for space, it called for an international Arab Space Agency to be established, along the lines of Europe's equivalent.

Arabs' astronomical history

The Arab world had a leading role when humanity was looking to the stars between the times of Ptolemy and Copernicus, a period of over a thousand years.

Astronomy's progress between the 9th and 11th centuries was driven by the Islamic world, when there were no notable developments in Europe. This was the golden age of the Islamic civilisation – both in terms of the mathematical tools of astronomy and in the observation of the sky. 

These achievements, penned mostly in Arabic, took place in the Middle East, Central Asia, Andalusia, North Africa, the Far East, and India. In its early stages, Islamic astronomy relied on translated Hellenic, Sassanid, and Indian astronomical works.

While Arab astronomy progressed and produced its own literature, it influenced Byzantine, Indian, European, Chinese, and Malian astronomists.

Up to this day, some stars still bear their Arabic names in non-Arab languages, including Aldebaran and Altair. The same applies to some astronomical concepts and tools, such as azimuth, nadir, and alidade. 

The golden age of Islamic astronomy began under the reign of Caliph Haroun Al-Rashid and continued under his son Al-Mamun, with both encouraging scientific and cultural work in their empire.

During his reign in Baghdad, between 813 and 833, the Caliph Al-Mamun established the first permanent astronomical observatory in the world. Some of the observations made were stored in the largest library since that of Alexandria, the House of Wisdom, which he also set up.

Astronomy also served a religious role, as it had done before and still continues to do. It helped the pious determine prayer and fasting times, among other rituals.

It was also crucial in trade as it allowed caravans and ships to determine their destinations.

Key translations in the early stage included Claudius Ptolemy's Almagest and Euclid's Elements, but later, Al-Khwarizmi's Zij Al-Sindhind (The Astronomical Handbook of Sind and Hind), published in the 770s, which was the first leading astronomical work in Arabic.

Notable Islamic figures

Around the same time as Al-Khwarizmi, Al-Farghani wrote Kitab fi Al-Harakat Al-Samawiya wa Jawami' Ilm Al-Nujum (A Book on Celestial Motion and Science of the Stars), a work based on the astronomy of Ptolemy.

It also introduced vital new ideas, not least that precession should affect the apparent position of planets, not just stars. This work played a considerable role in Western Europe when it is translated into Latin in the 12th century.

Around the end of the 9th century, the dominant figure was the Arab astronomer Al-Battani who observed the sky from Syria and made measurements with remarkable precision for the time. The measurements determine the duration of the solar year and the value of the precession of the equinoxes. He also took catalogued 489 stars.

From a more theoretical point of view, his main work, Kitab al-Zij (The Astronomical Handbook), is of fundamental importance because it introduced trigonometry into the study of the celestial sphere.

This new approach proved to be much more powerful than Ptolemy's geometric method. The book was translated into Latin in the 12th century and significantly influenced the great European astronomists in the 16th and 17th centuries.

In 994, the astronomer Al-Khujandi built a huge wall-mounted sextant at Ray's observatory near Tehran, the first instrument allowing measurements more precise than the minute of arc. He used it to determine a finer value of the obliquity of the ecliptic, or the exact inclination of the Earth's equator.

Around the same time, there was another major scholar, Al-Biruni. He excelled in breakthrough observations of lunar and solar eclipses, but also in a more modern approach to the experimental method, when he analysed the errors that tainted his measurements and those of Al-Khujandi.

Like his predecessors, he was a polymath,  interested in many subjects such as mathematics and geography.

Omar Khayyam is today best known for his poetry.

In the 11th century, his interests were also broad and included algebra and astronomy. He created new astronomical tables, but he distinguished himself above all by determining the length of the solar year with extreme precision for the time.

Alas, this Golden Age of Islamic astronomy ended in the 12th century with European astronomers beginning to take the lead. The works of this Golden Period were gradually translated into Latin, in Toledo, Spain, and spread in Europe.

It was through these translations that European scholars of the late Middle Ages would rediscover Ptolemy's theories and become aware of the advances made in the Islamic world.