Ax-1 Crew Aboard SpaceX Dragon Arrives At ISS In First All-private Mission
Keneci Channel
Crew Dragon Endeavor docked about 44 minutes later than planned, to the International Space Station(ISS) at 1229 UTC Saturday April 9, while both spacecraft were flying 260 miles above the central Atlantic Ocean. Dragon’s hatch opening to ISS later occurred at 1413 UTC, Saturday, April 9.
The fully private Ax-1 mission organized by Houston company Axiom Space, is commanded by Michael López-Alegría, a former NASA astronaut and current Axiom Space employee. He's joined by three Axiom customers — United States entrepreneur Larry Connor, Canadian Mark Pathy and Israeli Eytan Stibbe, each of whom reportedly paid about $55 million for the trip.
Stibbe was the first to board the ISS, followed by Pathy, Connor and then López-Alegría of the U.S. and Spain. They were welcomed with broad smiles and hugs from the space station's Expedition 67 crew members -- NASA astronauts Marshburn, Raja Chari, and Kayla Barron, ESA (European Space Agency) astronaut Matthias Maurer, and Roscosmos cosmonauts Oleg Artemyev, Sergey Korsokov, and Denis Matveev.
López-Alegría ceremonially gave each of his three crewmates and newly minted astronauts, official astronaut pins from the Association of Space Explorers to mark their trip to space. They each said they're enjoying their trip so far and eager to start a packed schedule of events and some fun aboard the station.
"Words don't describe it," Connor said. "Thanks to SpaceX for a phenomenal ride."
"It's just amazing to be here, it's hard to find the words," Pathy said, adding that he has to remember to look up to see crewmates floating on the ceiling. "It's been an amazing journey. I'm not just talking about the last 24 hours, I'm talking about everything that's got us here."
The Ax-1 crew will spend more than one week aboard the orbiting laboratory conducting various scientific, educational, and commercial activities.
Dragon Endeavor launched atop the reusable Falcon 9 rocket Friday April 8. Liftoff occurred at about 1517 UTC. Following stage separation, Falcon 9’s first stage landed on the droneship, A Shortfall of Gravitas, which was stationed in the Atlantic Ocean. This is Dragon’s fifth human spaceflight to the International Space Station, from historic Launch Complex 39A (LC-39A) at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida.
WATCH the highlights of the Ax-1 mission.