A four-person crew, including Turkey’s first astronaut, has successfully docked at the International Space Station (ISS) in a mission arranged entirely by Texas-based startup, Axiom Space, marking another milestone in commercial space travel. The crew reached the ISS approximately 37 hours after their lift-off from NASA’s Kennedy Space Centre in Cape Canaveral, Florida, on a rocketship operated by SpaceX under contract with Axiom.
The Crew Dragon vessel, alongside the Falcon 9 rocket that propelled it to orbit, were all provided and operated by SpaceX. Following their arrival at the space station, the astronauts now fall under the responsibility of NASA’s mission control in Houston.
The Crew Dragon autonomously docked with the ISS while both spacecraft were soaring at hypersonic speeds of about 17,500 miles per hour (28,200 km/h) over the South Pacific. Once the coupling was achieved, it was expected to take approximately two hours for the sealed passageway between the space station and the crew capsule to be pressurized and checked for leaks. This process will allow the astronauts to move aboard the orbiting laboratory.
During their approximately 14-day stay in microgravity, the Axiom-3 crew is set to conduct over 30 scientific experiments, focusing on the effects of spaceflight on human health and disease.
Leading the multinational team is Michael López-Alegría, a retired NASA astronaut and Axiom executive, making his sixth flight to the ISS. Italian Air Force Colonel Walter Villadei serves as his second-in-command, alongside Swedish aviator Marcus Wandt, representing the European Space Agency, and Alper Gezeravcı, a Turkish Air Force veteran and fighter pilot, making history as Turkey’s first human spaceflight participant.
The Axiom startup, founded eight years ago in Houston, specializes in organizing missions for foreign governments and private individuals interested in space travel. The company offers comprehensive services, including training and equipping astronauts for spaceflight, with a seat on their missions priced at least at $55 million.
Axiom is also among a select group of companies actively working on the development of a commercial space station. Their aim is to eventually replace the ISS, which NASA plans to retire around 2030. The ISS, launched into orbit in 1998, has been continuously occupied since 2000, thanks to a U.S.-Russian-led partnership that includes Canada, Japan, and 11 European Space Agency member countries.
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