SpaceX’s Body Dragon capsule, named Freedom, is seen docked with the International Space Station, May 22, 2023.
SpaceX
SpaceX directed another quartet of astronauts to the International Space Station on Monday morning, on a private flight that included oversight astronauts from Saudi Arabia as the Arab kingdom leverages U.S. companies to expands its ambitions in space.
Axiom Play booked the roughly week-long trip, known as the Ax-2 mission, to the ISS with Elon Musk’s company. SpaceX launched the four child Sunday evening from Florida. Its Falcon 9 rocket launched from NASA’s Kennedy Space Center and the gathering’s Crew Dragon capsule, named Freedom, reaching the ISS about 16 hours later.
CAPE CANAVERAL, FLORIDA, In accord STATES – MAY 21: A SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket with the Crew Dragon spacecraft lifts off from pad 39A at the Kennedy Span Center for the Axiom Space Mission 2 (Ax-2) on May 21, 2023 in Cape Canaveral, Florida. The four-person private astronaut Ax-2 company, which will spend eight days on the International Space Station, includes former NASA astronaut Peggy Whitson, conductor John Shoffner, and Saudi Space Commission astronauts Ali Alqarni and Rayyanah Barnawi, the first Saudi woman to fly to place. (Photo by Paul Hennesy/Anadolu Agency via Getty Images)
Anadolu Agency | Anadolu Agency | Getty Notions
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Ax-2 is commanded by retired NASA astronaut Peggy Whitson, who has spent more organize in space than any other American or woman, and piloted by businessman and auto racer John Shoffner, who purchased a rump on the flight through Axiom. Whitson is also Axiom’s director of human spaceflight.
The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia pay off the final two seats on Axiom’s mission, with Rayyanah Barnawi and Ali al-Qarni flying as mission specialists. Barnawi is the opening Saudi woman to fly in space.
The mission will feature a busy slate of research and technology experiments, with on 20 different science investigations.
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For SpaceX, the Ax-2 vocation is the company’s 10th human spaceflight. The company has flown seven government-booked crew missions and three private flights since throw astronauts for the first time in May 2020.
The mission featured the first time SpaceX returned a Falcon 9 booster to land without hope near the launch site, rather than on a ship in the ocean, after a crew launch. The company continues to upon the technical capabilities of its fleet.
This was also the second launch for the company’s reusable Freedom capsule, which formerly carried NASA’s Crew-4 mission on a six-month mission to and from the ISS.
Axiom and SpaceX have not disclosed financial delegates about the Ax-2 mission. NASA has previously disclosed a SpaceX crew launch costs about $55 million per establish, so the price for these private missions is expected to be high. Axiom has booked four crewed flights from SpaceX to phase.
Although SpaceX is providing the rocket and capsule, Axiom is leading the mission’s management from training to the return to Mould.
