Contents

List of Muslim astronauts

Country	Name	Mission (launch date)	Insignia	Description
Saudi Arabia	Sultan bin Salman Al Saud[1]	STS-51-G (June 17, 1985)		First Muslim, first Saudi, first Arab, first member of royalty in space.
Syria	Muhammed Faris[2]	Mir EP-1 (July 22, 1987)		First Syrian in space; second Arab in space.
Soviet Union (currently  Azerbaijan)	Musa Manarov[3]	Mir EO-3 (December 21, 1987) Soyuz TM-11 (December 2, 1990)		First North Caucasian in space. Total of 541 days in space.
Afghanistan	Abdul Ahad Momand[2]	Mir EP-3 (August 29, 1988)		First Afghan and Pashtun in space.
Soviet Union (currently  Kazakhstan)	Toktar Aubakirov[2]	Soyuz TM-13 (October 2, 1991)		First Kazakh in space.
Russia (born in  Kazakhstan)[4]	Talgat Musabayev[2]	Soyuz TM-19 (November 4, 1994) Soyuz TM-27 (August 25, 1998) Soyuz TM-32 (May 6, 2001)		Second Kazakh in space. Total of 341 days in space.
Russia (born in  Kyrgyzstan)	Salizhan Sharipov[2]	STS-89 (January 20, 1998) Expedition 10 (October 14, 2004)		First Tajik-Uzbek in space. Total of 201 days in space.
United States (born in  Iran)	Anousheh Ansari	Soyuz TMA-9 (September 18, 2006)		First female space tourist; first Muslim woman in space; first Iranian in space.
Malaysia	Sheikh Muszaphar Shukor[2]	Soyuz TMA-11 (October 10, 2007)		First Malaysian Malay in space.
Kazakhstan	Aidyn Aimbetov[2]	Soyuz TMA-18M (September 2, 2015)		Third Kazakh in space.
United Arab Emirates	Hazza Al Mansouri	Soyuz MS-15 (September 25, 2019)		First Emirati in space; third Arab in space.
Egypt	Sara Sabry	Blue Origin NS-22 (August 4, 2022)		Suborbital flight. First Egyptian and African in space; first Arab woman in space; second Muslim woman in space.
United Arab Emirates	Sultan Al Neyadi	SpaceX Crew-6 (March 2, 2023)		Second Emirati in space; fifth Arab in space.
Saudi Arabia	Ali AlQarni	Axiom Mission 2 (May 21, 2023)		First male Saudi to ISS.
Saudi Arabia	Rayyanah Barnawi	Axiom Mission 2 (May 21, 2023)		First Saudi woman in space; second Arab woman in space; third Muslim woman in space.
Pakistan	Namira Salim	Galactic 04 (October 6, 2023)		First Pakistani citizen in space; first South Asian Muslim in space.
Turkey	Alper Gezeravcı	Axiom Mission 3 (18 January, 2024)		First Turk in space and to ISS.
Turkey	Tuva Cihangir Atasever	Galactic 07 ( 07 June, 2024)		Second Turkish astronaut

Praying Towards Mecca in Space[edit]

Malaysia's space agency, Angkasa, convened a conference of 150 Islamic scientists and scholars in 2006 to address the question, among others, of how to pray towards Meccainspace. A document was produced in early 2007 called "A Guideline of Performing Ibadah (worship) at the International Space Station (ISS)" and was approved by Malaysia's National Fatwa Council.^[5]

See also[edit]

• Angkasawan program
• List of Arab astronauts

References[edit]