The Dragonnamed Freedom, introduced atop a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket on Sunday night time (May 21), kicking off the personal Ax-2 challenge to the orbiting lab.
Freedom is scheduled to dock with the ISS on Monday at 9:24 am EDT (1324 GMT), finishing a just about 17-hour orbital chase. Watch the rendezvous right here on Space.com, courtesy of NASA, or immediately by the use of the distance company, Coverage will start at 7:30 am EDT (1130 GMT) and proceed thru hatch opening at 11:13 am EDT (1513 GMT) and inviting remarks from ISS astronauts about half-hour after that.Related: Live updates from the Ax-2 personal astronaut challenge
Ax-2 is commanded by way of former NASA astronaut Peggy Whitsonwho now works for Axiom Space, the Houston-based corporate running the challenge. Businessman and paying buyer John Shoffner serves as pilot, and Ali AlQarni and Rayyanah Barnawi, two individuals of Saudi Arabia’s inaugural astronaut elegance, are Ax-2 challenge experts. AlQarni and Barnawi would be the first Saudis to talk over with the ISS, and Barnawi is the primary girl from the dominion ever to achieve house.
Whitson has already spent extra time in house than some other American astronaut, and with Ax-2 turns into the primary girl to command a non-public spaceflight.
The Ax-2 group will sign up for the seven individuals of the present Expedition 69 aboard the ISS. After getting acclimated to the microgravity atmosphere in low Earth orbit, the group has a hectic docket of analysis investigations, science experiments and academic outreach to occupy their time over the eight-day challenge.
Studies into the degradation of mRNA in house, new communications programs and radiation-shielding polymers are amongst greater than 20 tasks the Ax-2 group will have interaction in earlier than they go back to earth on the finish of the month.
After undocking from the orbiting lab, Ax-2’s Dragon tablet Freedom will deorbit and splash down off the coast of Florida.
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