Sultan bin Salman is a former Royal Saudi Air Force pilot who flew aboard the STS-51-G Space Shuttle mission as a payload specialist, and a member of House of Saud. He is thus the first of royal blood, and the first Arab and Muslim to be in outer space. Sultan was born in Riyadh on 27 June 1956. Read more
Prince Sultan bin Salman, the first astronaut from Saudi Arabia and the Middle East to go into space, has said his mission in space proved to be the catalyst for the region's drive toward science and technology. In his keynote address at the Global Space Technology Forum in Abu Dhabi recently the prince said his trip to space in June 1985 helped to promote interest in space travel and the sciences to Arab and Muslims. Read more