The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia’s astronaut Ali Al-Qarni announced on Friday that he has started an artificial seeding experiment in a microgravity environment on the International Space Station (ISS).
This comes four days after Ali Al-Qarni and his compatriot, Rayyanah Barnawi, arrived in space and began conducting research and scientific experiments as planned.
Taking to Twitter, Al-Qarni shared a 43-second video clip, explaining that he had started the experiment and stressed that the experiment was equipped with Saudi hands.
“The cloud seeding will help us to raise the artificial raining rate by 50%,” Al-Qarni tweeted.
Watch the video below
The experiment will contribute to improving researchers’ understanding of seeding technology, which works to increase the rate of rain in many countries.
Saudi astronauts Rayyanah Barnawi and Ali Al-Qarni were launched into space on May 21 from the Kennedy Space Centre in Florida aboard SpaceX’s Falcon 9 rocket. Accompanied by former NASA astronaut Peggy Whitson and American entrepreneur John Shofner, the launch was organised by Axiom Space.
During the mission, the flight crew conducts more than 20 scientific and technological experiments, including studying the effects of space on human health and the seeding technology they started with.
