News

First Female Saudi Astronaut To Join International Space Station

Saudi Arabia will send a male and female astronaut to the ISS in Q2 of 2023.

Published

3 years ago

February 14, 2023

Nour Nasir

first female saudi astronaut to join the international space station

Saudi Space Commission

Saudi Arabia has officially announced that it will send the first female Saudi astronaut to the International Space Station in Q2 2023 as part of a two-person team. The mission follows in the footsteps of the neighbouring United Arab Emirates which became the first Arab nation to send a citizen into space, back in 2019.

Rayyanah Barnawi and teammate Ali AlQarni will join the crew of the AX-2 space mission in a historic flight that will launch from the USA. Meanwhile, the Saudi Human Spaceflight Program will commence the training of two further astronauts, Mariam Fardous and Ali AlGamdi, for the mission.

The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia hopes the mission will bolster human spaceflight capabilities and help the country benefit from the opportunities provided by being an active participant in the space industry. An official statement explained that the flight would be “contributing to scientific research that serves the interests of humans in essential fields such as health, sustainability, and space technology.”

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As well as boosting research and development in space-based innovation, The Saudi Human Spaceflight Program will also aid new graduates in the fields of science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM). According to the Saudi Space Commission, the mission to the ISS will make the country one of only a handful to simultaneously bring two astronauts of the same nationality to the International Space Station.

The Spaceflight Program contributes to Saudi Arabia’s Vision 2030, a unique transformative economic and social reform blueprint. The AX-2 mission will help to further the country’s plans for the future and enable Saudi innovation to take center stage in the global, connected economy.

News

A Three-Clinic Network Bets Dubai Is Ready For Longevity Medicine

Longevium has enlisted nearly 100 clinicians and created an AI platform in a bid to sell biological-age tracking as a medicine, not a wellness service.

Published

2 days ago

July 13, 2026

Dana Saadeh

a three-clinic network bets dubai is ready for longevity medicine

Dubai has been busily creating the scaffolding for a longevity industry, including a dedicated regulatory authority and a health market deep enough to sustain it. Now the clinics are arriving.

Longevium, a longevity clinic network, has opened three locations across the city: a flagship at Triple Seven Mall on Jumeirah 3, and branches in Jumeirah Lake Towers and Jumeirah Village Circle. Together they house a multidisciplinary team of nearly 100 physicians and specialists offering what the company bills as “a measurable medical system for longevity”.

longevity dubai clinic launch

The pitch is that longevity medicine should look less like a wellness menu and more like continuous clinical care. Each patient’s biological age assessment, laboratory results, body composition, cardiovascular risk factors, metabolic markers, and lifestyle data feed into a single profile, with a proprietary AI platform helping physicians track progress and adjust protocols against the patient’s own biomarkers.

“Healthy aging must be approached clinically through diagnostics, biomarkers, physician supervision, longitudinal tracking, and protocols tailored to the individual,” said Dr. Ksenia Butova, Longevium’s founder and CEO. “Our goal is to help patients understand their health trajectory before disease develops, and then actively change that trajectory”.

The treatment list spans peptide-based protocols, exosome therapies, stem cell approaches, GLP-1 metabolic optimization, hormone balance programs, cardiovascular prevention, and regenerative aesthetics — a model built for the entrepreneurs, executives, and international patients the clinic says want measurable results rather than generic wellness. A signature offering, Longevity Day, compresses biomarker testing, ultrasound and vascular imaging, specialist consultations, IV therapy, and a personalized optimization roadmap into a single three-hour visit.

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“Here, longevity, biotechnology, AI, prevention, and regenerative medicine are converging into a single ecosystem,” said Butova. “This is why Longevium was built in Dubai, and why we believe the UAE can become a global reference point for longevity medicine”.

The emirate established the Dubai Longevity Authority in 2026 to oversee its longevity, wellness, and advanced health sectors, and the Dubai Health Authority reported insured beneficiaries exceeding 4.9 million in 2025, up around 6.5%, with insurance claims reaching approximately 49.6 million, up around 13.5%.