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Saudi Arabia To Send First Female Astronaut Into Space By 2023
Saudi Arabia will begin a training program that will include female astronauts as part of a wider space strategy.
As part of a broader plan to promote science and technology, Saudi Arabia’s space commission is partnering with Houston-based company Axiom Space, which includes a program to send the first female Saudi astronaut out of the earth’s atmosphere by 2023.
The news of this gender-breaking program comes after 2018’s landmark decision to lift the ban on women driving in the Kingdom, forming part of the ambitious Vision 2030 plan.
“The Saudi Astronaut Program, an integral part of the Kingdom’s ambitious Vision 2030, will send Saudi astronauts into space to help better serve humanity. One of the astronauts will be a Saudi woman, whose mission to space will represent a historical first for the Kingdom,” says the Saudi Space Commission.
The program follows the same direction taken by the UAE in recent years, from the launch of the Mars Hope Probe in 2021 and the Mars Science City plan, as well as the ambitious goal of sending a lunar rover to the moon in November this year.
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“Space belongs to all of humanity, which is one of the reasons Axiom Space is pleased to welcome our new partnership with the Saudi Space Commission to train and fly Saudi astronauts, including the first female Saudi astronaut,” says Michael Suffredini, President and CEO of Axiom Space.
Saudi Arabia will reveal the full extent of its interplanetary program in the coming months in the National Space Strategy. The Kingdom is no stranger to space exploration, as Saudi prince Sultan Ibn Salman Al Saud was the first Muslim and Arab to leave the earth’s atmosphere way back in 1985 with NASA’s Discovery mission.
News
Nano Banana 2 Arrives In MENA For Google Gemini Users
Google brings its latest image model to Gemini and Search, adding 4K output and tighter text control for regional users.
Google has opened access to Nano Banana 2 across the Middle East and North Africa, pushing its newest image model into everyday tools rather than keeping it inside the exclusive (and expensive) Pro tier.
The rollout spans the Google Gemini desktop and mobile apps, and extends to Google Search through Lens and AI Mode. Developers can also test it in preview via AI Studio and the Gemini API.
Nano Banana 2 runs on Gemini Flash, Google’s fast inference layer. The focus is speed, but also control. Users can export visuals from 512px up to 4K, adjusting aspect ratios for everything from vertical social posts to widescreen displays.
The model maintains character likeness across up to five figures and preserves fidelity for as many as 14 objects within a single workflow. This enables visual continuity across scenes, iterations, or edits — supporting projects like short films, storyboards, and multi-scene narratives. Text rendering has also been improved, delivering legible typography in mockups and greeting cards, with built-in translation and localization directly within images.
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Under the hood, the system taps Gemini’s broader knowledge base and pulls in real-time information and imagery from web search to render specific subjects more accurately. Lighting and fine detail have been upgraded, without slowing output.
By embedding the model inside Gemini and Search, Google is normalizing advanced image generation for a mass audience. In MENA, where startups and marketing teams are leaning heavily on AI to scale content across languages and borders, that shift lands at a practical moment.
The move also folds creative tooling deeper into search itself, so that image generation is no longer a separate workflow. It now sits right next to the query box.
Nano Banana 2 Arrives In MENA For Google Gemini Users
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