On Tuesday (April 5th), SpaceX unveiled the Falcon 9 Dragon rocket and capsule that will fly it Mission Ax-1 at Launch Pad 39A at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center (KSC) in Florida. SpaceX posted photos of the release on Twitter (opens in a new tab). The Ax-1, which was organized by the Houston company Axiom Space, is scheduled to take off on Friday (April 8). It will send three paying customers and Axiom employee Michael López-Alegría, a former NASA astronaut who leads the mission, to the orbiting lab for an eight-day stay. Photos: The first space touristsLive updates: The Ax-1 private mission to the International Space Station
Another look at the Ax-1 Dragon and Falcon 9 when they are released on April 5, 2022. (Image credit: SpaceX via Twitter) Individuals have visited the station in the past, but have always flown with government astronauts – in particular, its staff. Roscosmos, the Federal Space Agency of Russia. Therefore, the Ax-1 will open a new path. However, the upcoming mission is not the first crew voyage to Earth. This distinction belongs Inspiration 4, a SpaceX flight purchased and operated by tech entrepreneur Jared Isaacman. He and three other people orbited our planet for almost three days last September in a Dragon capsule, but did not meet with the space station. The launch of the Ax-1 was aimed at Sunday (April 3), but was postponed to host NASA’s “wet clothing rehearsal” Artemis 1 moon mission, which took place the same weekend at KSC’s Pad 39B. However, the Artemis 1 trial was not completed on Sunday as scheduled. delayed and then stopped due to technical issues and will continue for a while after the Ax-1 comes down from the ground. SpaceX has another Dragon mission with a crew also coming this month – the Crew-4, which will send three NASA astronauts and a European spacecraft to the space station for a long stay. The Crew-4 is scheduled to launch from Pad 39A on April 20th. Mike Wall is the author of “Out there (opens in new tab) “(Grand Central Publishing, 2018, illustrated by Karl Tate), a book about the search for extraterrestrial life. Follow him on Twitter @michaeldwall (opens in a new tab). Follow us on Twitter @Spacedotcom (opens in new tab) or enabled Facebook (opens in a new tab).
