SpaceX successfully launched three paying customers and one professional astronaut from Kennedy Space Center on Friday, sending them on a mission destined for the International Space Station.
Crew Dragon Endeavour capsule is a frequent flier, having now launched to the ISS three times. NASA astronauts first flew in Endeavour during the Demo-2 mission in May 2020, which kicked off the return of human spaceflight from the United States after nearly a decade-long hiatus.
"The Ax-1 mission is very different in that the entire crew are unaffiliated with any government," said Derek Hassmann, operations director at Axiom Space."Our commander is an Axiom employee. Then the other three are individuals really from across the world."López-Alegría is a vice president for Axiom and the company's chief astronaut. He is a veteran spacefarer and has completed the trip to space and back four times before Friday's launch.
First up is Crew-4, shortly followed by the four astronauts of Crew-3 splashing down off the coast of Florida.
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