NASA:- A crew of four civilians are set to launch to the International Space Station this week in a historic first and it is a part of an inaugural mission for the commercial spaceflight company Axiom Space.
Via a SpaceX Dragon capsule, they’ll be riding on a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket and docking at the station, but Axiom should not be confused with Elon Musk’s private spaceflight company and more importantly Axiom is less focused on building rockets than re-thinking the future of space stations.
Taking part in the mission, the four crew members- three paying passengers and a former NASA astronaut there to serve as commander and dubbed Ax-1 will taxi to the ISS via SpaceX vehicles as part of the 10 day trip. In the latest expansion of commercial space ventures collectively referred to by insiders as the low-Earth orbit Economy or “LEO economy” for short the launch is being hailed by the company NASA and other industry players.
Initially the launch was scheduled for Wednesday and an Axiom spokesperson said on Monday the delay would give SpaceX more time to complete pre-launch processing work and accordingly if all goes smoothly, the quartet led by retired NASA astronaut Michael Lopez-Alegria would arrive at the space station about 28 hours later as their SpaceX-supplied Crew Dragon capsule docks at ISS some 400km (250 miles) above Earth.
It is to be observed that Lopez-Alegria, 63 is the Spanish-born mission commander and Axiom’s Vice President of Business Development and he is set to be joined by Larry Connor, a real estate and technology entrepreneur and aerobatics aviator from Ohio designated as the mission pilot.
Published By : VATSAL KOTHA
Edited By : KHUSHI THAKUR
