Sultan bin Salman Al Saud
Saudi - (KACST-SRI)
Retired
Date of Birth: June 27, 1956
Age: 70
Sultan bin Salman bin Abdulaziz Al Saud (born 27 June 1956) is a former Royal Saudi Air Force pilot who flew aboard the American STS-51-G Space Shuttle mission as a payload specialist, and a member of the House of Saud. He is thus the first member of a royal family to be an astronaut, and the first Arab and Muslim to fly in space.
Space Shuttle Discovery / OV-103 | STS-51-G
National Aeronautics and Space Administration | United States of AmericaKennedy Space Center, FL, USA
Status: Success
Mission:
STS-51-G was the eighteenth flight of the shuttle program and fifth for Space Shuttle Discovery. Sultan Salman Al Saud of Saudi Arabia was on board as a payload specialist; he became the first Arab, the first Muslim and first member of a royal family to fly into space. It was the first shuttle flight to fly without an astronaut from the pre-Shuttle era. Its mission was to deploy 3 10 satellites.
Low Earth OrbitThe Space Research Institute of Saudi Arabia is committed to space research for Suadi Arabia. Their space agency is chaired by Sultan bin Salman Al Saud, the first and only Saudi man to go to space aboard the STS-51-G for 7 days.
Falcon 9
Starlink Group 15-27
Space Launch Complex 4E - Vandenberg SFB, CA, USAA batch of 27 satellites for the Starlink mega-constellation - SpaceX's project for space-based Internet communication system.
Long March 2D
PIESAT-2 13-16
Launch Complex 9 - Taiyuan Satellite Launch Center, People's Republic of China4 X-band synthetic-aperture radar Earth observation satellites for the Chinese Earth observation satellite company PIESAT.
Electron
Owl By The Dozen (StriX Launch 12)
Rocket Lab Launch Complex 1B - Rocket Lab Launch Complex 1, Mahia Peninsula, New ZealandSynthetic aperture radar satellite for Japanese Earth imaging company Synspective.
Soyuz 2.1b/Fregat-M
Glonass-K1 No. 20 (?)
43/3 (43L) - Plesetsk Cosmodrome, Russian FederationNote: Satellite serial number and Cosmos designation not confirmed. Glonass-K are the third generation of satellite design for GLONASS satellite n…
Kuaizhou 11
SpaceTY-51 & 52
Launch Area 95A - Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center, People's Republic of China2 Earth observation radar satellites built by the Chinese satellite manufacturer SpaceTY.
