Saudi Arabia and NASA are working together to send astronauts back into space shortly as part of the Kingdom’s 2030 program, according to the US Embassy in Riyadh.
Prince Sultan bin Salman, the first Arab Muslim to fly on a space journey in 1985 AD, was one of the astronauts aboard the American space shuttle Discovery as it touched down at Edwards Air Force Base in California, marking the landing’s 37th anniversary.
The spacecraft Discovery had a crew of seven astronauts, including Prince Sultan Bin Salman, flight commander Daniel Brandenstein, his co-pilot John Crichton, scientists John Fabian, Stephen Nagel, and Stinnon Lucid, and French payload expert Patrick Purdy.
Prince Sultan received a brief phone conversation from the late King Fahd bin Abdulaziz on June 23, which was carried on television networks in the Kingdom and the nations of the Gulf Cooperation Council.
After a journey that lasted 7 days, 1 hour, and 38 minutes and included 111 orbits, the shuttle Discovery landed on June 24 at Edwards Air Force Base in California.
