Skip to main content
  1. Home
  2. Space
  3. News

How to watch NASA’s first space tourism launch to the ISS today

By
Add as a preferred source on Google

NASA is about to embark on its first space tourism mission to the International Space Station (ISS), and you can watch the entire event as it happens.

Ax-1 Mission | Launch

Organized by Texas-based Axiom Space and using SpaceX hardware, the 10-day mission will launch from the Kennedy Space Center in Florida at lunchtime on Friday, April 8.

Recommended Videos

The crew comprises Canadian investor and philanthropist Mark Pathy, American entrepreneur Larry Connor, and former Israeli Air Force pilot Eytan Stibbe, together with mission commander and former NASA astronaut Michael López-Alegría.

Pathy, Connor, and Stibbe have reportedly paid an astonishing $55 million for the trip of a lifetime.

The crewmembers have undergone months of intensive training for the Ax-1 mission and will spend their time in orbit conducting scientific research as well as outreach and commercial activities.

What to expect

Multiple cameras will livestream Friday’s events at the launch site. It’s likely to include the spacefarers making their to the Crew Dragon capsule, taking their seats, and making final preparations for the all-important launch that will see SpaceX’s workhorse Falcon 9 rocket blast the capsule and crew toward the ISS.

The Crew Dragon spacecraft will arrive at the space station early on Saturday, April 9.

How to watch

The Ax-1 mission will launch from NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida at 11:17 a.m. ET (8:17 a.m. PT) on Friday, April 8.

You can watch events by firing up the video player embedded at the top of this page, or by visiting SpaceX’s live feed, which will carry the same content. The broadcast will start at around 7:45 a.m. ET (4:45 a.m. PT).

Changes to the schedule could occur due to poor weather conditions or last-minute technical issues. Check NASA’s Twitter feed for the latest updates.

Docking with the ISS is expected to take place at around 6:45 a.m. ET (3:45 a.m. PT) on Saturday, April 9. The livestream will include the hatch opening and welcoming ceremony as the Ax-1 crew enters the ISS for the first time.

To get you in the mood for the launch of Ax-1, check out NASA’s recently released cinematic trailer for the upcoming mission.

Trevor Mogg
Trevor Mogg
Contributing Editor
Not so many moons ago, Trevor moved from one tea-loving island nation that drives on the left (Britain) to another (Japan)…
Topics
SpaceX Starship reaches orbit for the first time but its historic flight ends early
Starship reaches orbit for the first time and deploys 26 Starlink satellites before an early splashdown.
spacex-starship

After 13 suborbital test flights and more than $15 billion in development costs, SpaceX's Starship has finally reached orbit. The 407-foot megarocket, the most powerful ever built, lifted off from Starbase, Texas, on Monday and delivered its first real payload on it's 14th attempt. The celebration came with an asterisk, though, since SpaceX had to cut the planned 10-hour mission to roughly three hours.

https://twitter.com/SpaceX/status/2104601695711904180

Read more
Starship is finally going orbital, and SpaceX has picked September 22
Flight 14 is aiming for orbit, Starlink V3 deployment and a very long day in space.
Starship rocket.

SpaceX is finally ready to give Starship its biggest test yet. The company says the massive rocket's 14th test flight is scheduled for September 22, when it will attempt to put the upper stage into Earth orbit for the first time. The launch is currently pending regulatory approval, with a 75-minute window opening at 7:15 a.m. CT.

Starship has 26 Starlink satellites to deliver

Read more
Want a city on the Moon? Scientists say there’s not enough water
A billion tons still comes up short
Artist impression of activities in a Moon Base.

For decades, humanity has looked up at the Moon and wondered what it would be like to live on it. Think sprawling cities, factories, research centers, and permanent human settlements. Unfortunately, there is one fairly fundamental problem with that vision.

A new study published in Frontiers in Space Technologies argues that even the Moon's potentially enormous reserves of frozen water may be nowhere near enough to support city-sized populations sustainably. Researchers Martin Elvis and Jonathan McDowell estimate that the permanently shadowed regions near the lunar poles could contain roughly one billion tons of water. It sounds like an extraordinary amount until you put a million thirsty humans next to it.

Read more