SpaceX has successfully launched four crewmembers to the International Space Station (ISS) in Axiom Space’s privately funded Ax-4 mission.
A Falcon 9 rocket carrying a Crew Dragon spacecraft lifted off from the Kennedy Space in Florida at 2:31 a.m. ET on Wednesday, lighting up the night sky over Florida and the Atlantic Ocean as the vehicle headed to orbit.
Here’s a video clip of SpaceX’s trusty Falcon 9 rocket leaving the launchpad:
This was the second flight for SpaceX’s first-stage Falcon 9 booster, and the first-ever flight for this particular Crew Dragon capsule.
Following stage separation, Falcon 9’s first stage will return to Landing Zone 1 (LZ-1) at Cape Canaveral, around 10 miles from the launch site. Here’s a video of the booster landing back at base about eight minutes after liftoff, a procedure that allows SpaceX to reuse the booster for multiple missions to reduce costs.
The Ax-4 crew comprises Indian Shubhanshu Shukla, Pole Sławosz Uznański, Hungarian Tibor Kapu, and American Peggy Whitson, a former NASA astronaut who now works for Ax-4 mission organizer Axiom Space.
This will be Whitson’s fifth trip to space, while the others are all on their first orbital voyage. In fact, it’ll be the first time for the ISS to host Pole and Hungarian nationals, so there’s great interest among people in those countries in the Ax-4 mission.
Whitson offered a few words direct from the new Crew Dragon capsule:
SpaceX’s Crew Dragon is expected to dock with the ISS at about 7 a.m. ET on Thursday, June 26.
The crew will spend two weeks aboard the space station, working on more than 60 scientific experiments and demonstrations focused on human research, Earth observation, and life, biological, and material sciences.
Axiom Space’s fourth privately funded mission is another significant step toward making space more accessible and international, enabling more countries and private organizations to send astronauts and conduct research aboard the ISS through commercial partnerships.
