Four civilian astronauts selected by the aerospace company Axiom Space, headquartered in Houston, Texas, set off on a space journey at 11:17 am local time from NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Canaveral Cape, Florida.
The journey of the nearly 120-metre-long SpaceX launch vehicle, consisting of a two-stage Falcon 9 rocket with a Crew Dragon capsule atop, started off smoothly.
Nine minutes after launch, the Crew Dragon capsule reached first-stage orbit. The usable lower part of the Falcon 9 rocket returned to Earth and successfully landed on the platform over the Atlantic Ocean.
If your flight goes as planned, the crew under the command of retired NASA astronaut Michael Lopez-Alegria will arrive tomorrow, after more than 20 hours of travel to the International Space Base. The Crew Dragon capsule, carrying astronauts and flying on autopilot, will dock at the International Space Station 400 kilometers from Earth.
SpaceX, founded in 2002 by billionaire investor Elon Musk, commands the flight from its headquarters near Los Angeles.
NASA, which hosted the launch of the rocket at the Kennedy Space Center, will take over responsibility after the astronauts arrive at the International Space Station. The astronauts, who will stay on the station for eight days, will conduct scientific and biological medicine research.
TURNING POINT OF COMMERCIAL SPACE FLIGHTS
The mission, which represents the partnership between aerospace companies Axiom, SpaceX, and NASA, the American Aeronautics and Space Administration, is considered an important step in expanding the scope of commercial space travel, which is called the “low orbit economy” by those in the industry.
NASA President Bill Nelson said that by channeling commercial flights to private companies, NASA could focus more on sending humans to the Moon, Mars and other destinations in deep space.
Today’s flight was SpaceX’s sixth manned spaceflight in nearly two years. The company has carried NASA astronauts to the International Space Station four times before. On the “Inspiration 4” flight in September, the four-man civilian crew flew into orbit for the first time, but did not dock with the Space Station.
Having previously hosted civilian visitors, the International Space Station will, with its latest AX-1 mission, allow a team of commercial astronauts to use the station as a research laboratory for the first time.
Axiom’s four-person team; It will share the same environment with three American and one German astronauts, and the International Space Station crew, consisting of three Russian cosmonauts and government employees.
The flight’s commander is 63-year-old Spanish-born American Lopez-Alegria, vice president of Axiom company. Larry Connor, second in command, is a real estate and tech entrepreneur. Connor, in his 70s, is also an aerobatic pilot.
Other members of the team are Eytan Stibbe, 64, an Israeli ex-fighter pilot, investor and philanthropist, and Mark Pathy, 52, a Canadian businessman and philanthropist. Stibbe became the second Israeli to go into space, after Ilan Ramon, one of seven astronauts aboard the space shuttle Columbia, which broke apart on its return to Earth in 2003.
The AX-1 team will conduct more than 20 scientific studies on brain health, heart stem cells, cancer and aging aboard the International Space Station.