Spaceflight Now by Stephen Clark May 20, 2023
The second fully commercial astronaut flight to the International Space Station will have just two opportunities to launch Sunday and Monday, or else wait until after an upcoming SpaceX resupply mission next month to deliver a new set of high-priority solar arrays to the complex.
The private crew mission, managed by Houston-based Axiom Space, is set for liftoff at 5:37 p.m. EDT (2137 UTC) Sunday from Launch Complex 39A at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida. The four-person crew will ride into orbit aboard a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket and Dragon spacecraft.
Record-breaking astronaut Peggy Whitson, with more time in space than any other American, leads the crew. She retired from NASA’s astronaut corps in 2018 after three long-duration missions on the space station, totaling 665 days in orbit.
She will be joined by U.S. businessman John Shoffner, who paid for his seat on the Axiom-sponsored flight to the space station. Saudi Arabian astronauts Ali Alqarni and Rayyanah Barnawi will fly as mission specialists on the Ax-2 mission, which is expected to last 10 days.
Alqarni and Barnawi will be the first Saudi Arabians to fly to the International Space Station, and Barnawi will be the first Arab woman on the orbiting research outpost. Their mission is funded by the government of Saudi Arabia.
During their time in orbit, Whitson, Shoffner, Alqarni, and Barnawi will perform biomedical experiments, chemistry and materials science research, and educational events with students on the ground. They will also greet and spend time with the seven crew members living on the station for long-duration stays.
The Ax-2 mission is Axiom’s second crew mission, following the company’s Ax-1 flight in April 2022 that made history as the first fully private astronaut crew to reach the space station. NASA is making resources on the space station available for commercial astronaut missions like Axiom’s flights, but Axiom, and ultimately the private crew members or their sponsors, must pay NASA for training and crew accommodations, such as access to the station’s life support system, food, and toilet.
More:
https://spaceflightnow.com/2023/05/20/axioms-second-crew-mission-has-narrow-window-for-launch/
