SpaceX will send 4 private tourists to the International Space Station to spend time with the astronauts on the ship.
Four private tourists will fly this Friday, April 8, to the International Space Station on the AX-1 mission , one of the forerunners on the way to mass flights to space.
At 10:17 a.m. Peru time (11:17 a.m. EDT), four private tourists will fly in a Crew Dragon capsule located on a Falcon 9 rocket from platform 39 at the Kennedy Space Center in the United States. Of course, if time permits.
At the moment, according to the Space Force, weather conditions should be 80% favorable for launch.
You can watch the launch live through the official channels of SpaceX and NASA itself.
Who travel?
Under an agreement between NASA and business partners, SpaceX and Houston-based Axiom Space, Ax-1 will be the first mission of its kind to transport three paying customers and a former professional astronaut to the ISS for a stay of pcjp days.
Former NASA astronaut Michael López-Alegría, Axiom ‘s vice president of business development and chief astronaut , will command the mission. He will be joined by mission pilot Larry Connor and mission specialists Mark Pathy from Canada and Eytan Stibbe from Israel. Those three reportedly paid $55 million each for the mission.
The four private astronauts will launch aboard the Crew Dragon “Endeavour” capsule . With the trip, it will become the first SpaceX astronaut capsule to visit the ISS three times.
The Falcon 9 rocket used to propel the Crew Dragon capsule into orbit will also be reused, the same booster that previously supported SpaceX ‘s first completely private orbital mission last year, Inspiration 4.
After flying northeast propelling the Crew Dragon into its initial orbit, about eight minutes later the booster will land on a SpaceX drone stationed in the Atlantic Ocean.
The crew is expected to spend about 20 hours in orbit before docking with the International Space Station around 6:30 a.m. Saturday morning.
