Axiom Space will send its second commercial crew to the International Space Station earlier Sunday (May 21), and you can follow their journey in the photos below.
Houston-based Axiom Space’s second crewed mission to space, called Ax-2, will launch atop a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket and inside a Crew Dragon spacecraft. Liftoff is set Sunday (May 21) at 5:37 PM EDT (2137 GMT)And you can watch live here on Space.com via NASA and SpaceX.
Riding into space on Ax-2 will be Commander Peggy Whitson (retired NASA astronaut), American pilot John Shofner, Saudi mission specialist and fighter pilot Ali Alkarni, and mission specialist and research technician Rayana Barnawi, the Saudi first lady. Space.
Axiom’s first crewed mission to space, Ax-1, sent a crew into space for 17 days in April 2022. Ax-2 is expected to stay at the International Space Station for eight days.
Live Notifications: Axiom Space Ax-2 mission: Live announcements
Photos: The first space tourists
On launch day, four Ax-2 astronauts smile and wave to a camera and their SpaceX close-out crew after boarding their Dragon capsule Freedom hours before launch. From left: Saudi astronaut Rayana Barnawi; pilot John Shofner; Commander Becky Whitson; and Saudi astronaut Ali Alkarni.
Saudi national astronauts Rayanna Barnawi (left) and Ali Alkarni give two thumbs up as they walk through the crew access arm to their Dragon spacecraft during the Ax-2 launch from the Ax-2 launch pad at KSC on May 21. space station.
X-2 commander Peggy Whitson (left) and pilot John Shofner arrive at Pad 39A at the Kennedy Space Center ahead of the mission’s May 21, 2023, launch. Two other Ax-2 crew members, Saudi Arabians Ali Alkarni and Rayana Barnawi, arrived. Paddle after Whitson and Schaffner did.
The sun rises behind SpaceX’s Ax-2 Dragon capsule ahead of the May 21 launch of the Axiom space private astronaut to the International Space Station.
Ax-2 is Axiom Space’s second private flight with SpaceX. Here the Dragon capsule, called Freedom, made its second flight into space on board.
The Falcon 9 rocket carrying SpaceX’s Ax-2 mission to Axiom space is a brand new rocket on its maiden flight. Here, SpaceX shows the rocket on its PAD 39A launch pad ahead of launch.
SpaceX planned to return the rocket to Earth and land on Landing Zone 1 at the Cape Canaveral Space Force Station. This will be the first crewed flight to land, as previous flights have landed on drone ships in the Atlantic Ocean.
Ax-2 crew in training. From left: Commander Becky Whitson, Mission Specialist Reyna Barnavi, Pilot John Shofner and Mission Specialist Ali Alkarni.
The Ax-2 crew practices weightlessness in a parabolic flight. From left: Commander Becky Whitson and pilot John Shofner.
The Ax-2 crew in the launch pad’s missile access section at NASA Kennedy Space Center. From left: Mission Specialist Ali Alkarni, Commander Becky Whitson, Pilot John Shofner and Mission Specialist Reyna Barnawi.
Ax-2 commander Peggy Whitson is a retired NASA astronaut who has spent 665 days in space, breaking many records.
Ax-2 mission specialist Rayyanah Barnawi is the first Saudi woman to go into space. He has worked for nearly a decade as a research laboratory technician at King Faisal Specialist Hospital in Riyadh.
The Ax-2 pilot is John Shofner, an investor and pilot with over 8,500 flight hours in various commercial aircraft and helicopters. Shofner is a paying customer at Ax-2.
Ax-2 Mission Specialist Ali Alkarni is a fighter pilot in the Royal Saudi Air Force with nearly 2,400 flight hours of experience.
On May 18, 2023, SpaceX launches a Falcon 9 rocket for Ox-2. The Ax-2 mission was the first flight of the Falcon 9 first stage, but the second flight for the Crew Dragon capsule Freedom.
A close-up view of the X-2 Dragon capsule, named Freedom, when it is released from the launch pad on May 18, 2023.
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