The space station welcomes two visitors from Saudi Arabia, including the kingdom’s first female astronaut.

On Monday, the International Space Station rolled out a welcome mat for two visitors from Saudi Arabia, including the kingdom’s first female astronaut.

The SpaceX charter flight arrived at the orbiting lab less than 16 hours after taking off from Florida. The four guests will spend just over a week there before returning to Earth in their capsule.

Thanks to docking at an altitude of 270 miles (430 km), the space station has a population of 11, representing not only Saudi Arabia and the United States, but also the United Arab Emirates and Russia.

“It shows how space brings everyone together,” said Saudi Arabia’s first female astronaut, Ryan Barnavi, a stem cell researcher. “I’m going to make the most of this experience.”

Saudi fighter pilot Ali al-Qarni dedicated his visit to everyone in his homeland. “This mission is not just for me and Ryan. This mission is also meant for people with ambitions and dreams.”

The Saudi government is paying a multi-million dollar bill for both of them.

John Schoffner, a Knoxville, Tennessee businessman who founded a sports car racing team, pays for himself. They are accompanied by former NASA astronaut Peggy Whitson. She now works for Axiom Space, the Houston-based company that organized the 10-day flight, the second flight to the space station.

The company listed the cost of tickets for last year’s private trip of three businessmen at $55 million each, but did not say how much the last seats cost.

Before that, only one Saudi had flown into space, Prince, who flew on NASA’s shuttle Discovery in 1985.

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