The Dragon SpaceX capsule brought the first space crew first docked with international space stations. The quartet was launched from the Kennedy Space Center in Florida on Friday morning without a big hiccup. Their trip to the ISS takes around 20 hours. The dragon has a video routing problem before the docking sequence can begin, causing a delay of 45 minutes because it is only 20 meters from ISS while SpaceX is solving the problem.
Members of the Kru – Commander and former Astronaut NASA Michael López-Alegría and Entrepreneurs Larry Connor, Eytan Stibbe and Mark Pathy – are expected to spend eight days at the Space Station. They will conduct science experiments, along with commercial outreach and activities. They will also bring some scientific samples back to earth for NASA too.
The first Axiom Space All-Civil Mission, AX-1, is the first of several private ISS missions planning to be launched in the coming years. It will build the first commercial module at the space station and module that accommodates the sports arena and film studio. The axiom stations and the attached film studio modules are expected to be separated from the ISS in 2028.
Mariella Moon contributed to this report.