Dragon Endeavour with Ax-1 Crew Approaches Station

The SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket carrying the company's Crew Dragon spacecraft is launched on the Ax-1 mission to the space station. Photo Credit: SpaceX
The SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket carrying the company’s Crew Dragon spacecraft is launched on the Ax-1 mission to the space station. Photo Credit: SpaceX

NASA Television, the NASA app, and the agency’s website are providing live coverage for the arrival of the Axiom Mission 1 (Ax-1) to the International Space Station. Ax-1 astronauts Michael Lopez-Alegria, Larry Connor, Eytan Stibbe, and Mark Pathy are scheduled to dock about 7:45 a.m. Saturday, April 9, to the space-facing port of the station’s Harmony module.

The NASA, Axiom Space, and SpaceX teams are now conducting integrated operations which begins during the spacecraft’s approach to the International Space Station. NASA maintains mission responsibility during integrated operations, which continues during the crew’s more than one week stay aboard the orbiting laboratory conducting science, education, and commercial activities, and concludes once Dragon exits the area of the space station.

When the Axiom Space Mission 1 (Ax-1) arrives to the International Space Station, it will be the first mission with an entirely private crew to arrive at the orbiting laboratory. It represents both a culmination of NASA’s efforts to foster a commercial market in low-Earth orbit and a beginning of a new era of space exploration that enables more people to fly on more kinds of missions.

The welcome ceremony is expected to start shortly after the Dragon Endeavour hatch opens at about 9:30 a.m. Live mission coverage will end with the conclusion of the ceremony.

The first all private astronaut mission lifted off at 11:17 a.m. EDT Friday, April 8, on a Falcon 9 rocket from NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida.


Learn more about station activities by following the space station blog@space_station and @ISS_Research on Twitter, as well as the ISS Facebook and ISS Instagram accounts.

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