Four Saudi astronauts presented their experiences in front of more than 6,000 gifted students during the symposium organized by King Abdulaziz and his Companions Foundation for Giftedness and Creativity "Mawhiba", in partnership with the Saudi Space Agency. Over 250 students attended at Mawhiba Theater; and about 6 thousand of students from Mawhiba classes followed the meeting via internal live broadcast in their schools.

The meeting aims to raise awareness of the field of space among the new generation, strengthen relations between future and present scientists, and open new horizons for the future of space in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia for gifted students.

The Secretary-General of King Abdulaziz and his Companions Foundation for Giftedness and Creativity "Mawhiba", Dr. Amal bint Abdullah Al-Hazza confirmed that the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia is working to create a generation of scientists and leaders with gifted and creative young energies capable of bringing about change and progress and competing with the world in the field of astronomy and space.

The Secretary-General stated that Saudi Arabia the Kingdom, during its space program, sent astronauts into space; where they carried out their experiments and created added value in the economy and development for the prosperity of humanity, strengthened the Kingdom’s international competitiveness in this promising sector, and explored its secrets from the perspective of science and humanity.

In turn, the four Saudi astronauts (Rayana Barnawi, Ali Al-Qarni, Ali Al-Ghamdi and Maryam Ferdous) talked spoke about their experience and their struggle story from study to space. They reviewed their experiences and training, and the transformations they experienced in their professional lives from military, medical and laboratory studies to space.

During the meeting, the astronauts discussed various scientific issues aimed at enhancing the students’ cognitive awareness of space science and its fields, which they gained during their journey in space. They also inspired the promising generation of the nation’s gifted people with their scientific experiments in space, with the aim of increasing the students’ passion for astronomy and space.

They talked about the 14 scientific experiments that they carried out during their journey into space; which contributed to the scientific expansion and research in all its specializations. It is expected that such experiments will have an impact on the development of many programs and research, to benefit the humanity and to learn directly about the most prominent moments and space-related activities. This journey confirms the Kingdom’s serious directives towards benefiting from this sector in all its fields; as it is a giant future sector in which global visions intersect towards sustainability, technology and scientific research.

The meeting of the gifted students with the astronauts today is an extension of the previous scientific experiments in which the students participated; which focused on the experiment of liquid colors spread by focusing on fluid mechanics, the space kite experiment by focusing on aerodynamics, and the experiment of heat transfer patterns by focusing on the methods of heat transfer. The experiments witnessed instantaneous and direct interaction between the students and the astronauts while conducting the experiments through direct communication between the two sides.

The students had the opportunity to ask the astronauts their questions regarding the experiments, and to compare the results of their experiments on earth with those conducted by the Saudi space crew on the International Space Station.

It is worth noting that the gifted are detected every year through the National Program for Gifted Identification, after which various care programs are provided to hone their skills and enhance their potential and abilities.