Axiom Mission 2 (or Ax-2) was a private crewed spaceflight operated by

Axiom Space Axiom Space, Inc., also known as Axiom Space, is an American privately funded space infrastructure developer headquartered in Houston, Texas. Founded in 2016 by former CEO Michael T. Suffredini and Kam Ghaffarian, the company first flew a spa ...

. Ax-2 was launched on 21 May 2023 on a

SpaceX Space Exploration Technologies Corp., commonly referred to as SpaceX, is an America, American space technology company headquartered at the SpaceX Starbase, Starbase development site in Starbase, Texas. Since its founding in 2002, the compa ...

Falcon 9 Falcon 9 is a Reusable launch system#Partial reusable launch systems, partially reusable, two-stage-to-orbit, medium-lift launch vehicle designed and manufactured in the United States by SpaceX. The first Falcon 9 launch was on June 4, 2010, an ...

, successfully docking with the

International Space Station The International Space Station (ISS) is a large space station that was Assembly of the International Space Station, assembled and is maintained in low Earth orbit by a collaboration of five space agencies and their contractors: NASA (United ...

(ISS) on 22 May. After eight days docked to the ISS, the Dragon crew capsule ''Freedom'' undocked and returned to Earth twelve hours later. Ax-2 was the second Axiom mission after

Axiom Mission 1 Axiom Mission 1 (or Ax-1) was a privately funded and operated crewed mission to the International Space Station (ISS). The mission was operated by Axiom Space out of Axiom's Mission Control Center MCC-A in Houston, Texas. The flight launched ...

in April 2022 and the third private crewed

SpaceX Dragon Dragon is a family of spacecraft developed and produced by American private space transportation company SpaceX. The first variant, later named SpaceX Dragon 1, Dragon 1, flew 23 cargo missions to the International Space Station (ISS) between ...

mission.

Crew

The crew was commanded by Axiom employee

Peggy Whitson Peggy Annette Whitson (born February 9, 1960) is an American biochemistry researcher, and astronaut working for Axiom Space. She retired from NASA in 2018, after serving as Chief Astronaut. Over all her missions, Whitson accumulated a total of ...

, a former

NASA The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA ) is an independent agencies of the United States government, independent agency of the federal government of the United States, US federal government responsible for the United States ...

astronaut. John Shoffner, a

space tourist Space tourism is human space travel for recreational purposes. There are several different types of space tourism, including orbital, suborbital and lunar space tourism. Tourists are motivated by the possibility of viewing Earth from space, ...

, served as the pilot. The Saudi Space Agency purchased the other two seats on the flight and named astronauts Ali AlQarni and Rayyanah Barnawi to be the Mission Specialists. Axiom had initially announced in April 2021 that one crew member for the second Axiom spaceflight to the ISS would be selected via ''Who Wants to Be an Astronaut?'', a reality television series to be produced by

Discovery Channel Discovery Channel, known as The Discovery Channel from 1985 to 1995, and often referred to as simply Discovery, is an American cable channel that is best known for its ongoing reality television shows and promotion of pseudoscience. It init ...

. On 11 January 2022, Axiom announced Italian Air Force Colonel Walter Villadei as the company's first international professional astronaut. Col. Villadei was subsequently announced by Axiom as a backup crew member for Ax-2. He would later go on to serve as the pilot on Ax-3. On 22 September 2022, Axiom Space announced it would partner with the Saudi Space Agency to send two Saudi astronauts on Ax-2 to research cancer, cloud seeding, and microgravity in space. This mission included the first female Saudi astronaut to go to space.

Mission

Axiom 2 lifted off on 21 May 2023 from

Launch Complex 39A Launch Complex 39A (LC-39A) is the first of Launch Complex 39's three launch pads, located at NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Merritt Island, Florida. The pad, along with Launch Complex 39B, was built in the 1960s to accommodate the Saturn V lau ...

Kennedy Space Center The John F. Kennedy Space Center (KSC, originally known as the NASA Launch Operations Center), located on Merritt Island, Florida, is one of the NASA, National Aeronautics and Space Administration's (NASA) ten NASA facilities#List of field c ...

, onboard a

Falcon 9 Block 5 Falcon 9 Block 5 is a Reusable launch system#Partial reusable launch systems, partially reusable, human-rating certification, human-rated, two-stage-to-orbit, medium-lift launch vehicle designed and manufactured in the United States by SpaceX. I ...

rocket. For the first time on a crew mission, the first stage of Falcon 9 landed on land at

Cape Canaveral Space Force Station Cape Canaveral Space Force Station (CCSFS) is an installation of the United States Space Force's Space Launch Delta 45, located on Cape Canaveral in Brevard County, Florida. Headquartered at the nearby Patrick Space Force Base, the sta ...

Landing Zone 1 Landing Zone 1 and Landing Zone 2, also known as LZ-1 and LZ-2 respectively, are landing facilities at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station used by SpaceX. They allow the company to land the first stage of its Falcon 9 rocket or the two side boost ...

instead of the more common at-sea recovery typical of crew flights. The mission, which was the second flight of Crew Dragon ''Freedom'', docked with the International Space Station a day later. During the mission, the crew performed public outreach activities along with scientific research, including studies into the effects of microgravity on stem cells and other biological experiments. After eight days docked to the ISS, Axiom 2 undocked and returned to Earth twelve hours later. ''Freedom''

splashed down Splashdown is the method of landing a spacecraft or launch vehicle in a body of water, usually by parachute. This has been the primary recovery method of American capsules including NASA’s Mercury, Gemini, Apollo and Orion along with the ...

successfully in the

Gulf of Mexico The Gulf of Mexico () is an oceanic basin and a marginal sea of the Atlantic Ocean, mostly surrounded by the North American continent. It is bounded on the northeast, north, and northwest by the Gulf Coast of the United States; on the southw ...

off the coast of

Panama City, Florida Panama City is a city in and the county seat of Bay County, Florida, United States. Located along U.S. Route 98 in Florida, U.S. Highway 98 (US 98), it is the largest city between Tallahassee, Florida, Tallahassee and Pensacola, Florida, Pe ...

. It was recovered by SpaceX's recovery ship ''Megan''.

Gallery

External links

References

{{Portal bar, Spaceflight, Italy, Spain, United States, Saudi Arabia 2023 in spaceflight May 2023 in the United States Axiom Space International Space Station Kennedy Space Center SpaceX human spaceflights Private space missions

Crew

Mission

Gallery

See also

External links

References