The SpaceX Dragon Freedom spacecraft carrying four Axiom Mission 3 astronauts is pictured docked to the space station shortly after an orbital sunrise. Credit: NASA TV
Axiom Mission 3 astronauts Michael López-Alegría, Walter Villadei, Marcus Wandt, and Alper Gezeravci arrived at the International Space Station at 5:42 a.m. EST Saturday, Jan. 20. Dragon docked to the orbital complex while the spacecraft was flying about 262 miles over the Pacific Ocean, west of South America.
Live coverage continues on the NASA+ streaming service, NASA Television, the NASA app, and the agency’s website for hatch opening and crew remarks.
The SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket carrying four Axiom Mission 3 astronauts aboard the Dragon Freedom spacecraft launches from the Kennedy Space Center. Credit: NASA/Chris Swanson
The NASA+ streaming service, NASA Television, the NASA app, and the agency’s website are providing live coverage for the arrival of the Axiom Mission 3 (Ax-3) to the International Space Station. Ax-3 astronauts Michael López-Alegría, Walter Villadei, Marcus Wandt and Alper Gezeravci are scheduled to dock as early as 5:40 a.m. EST Saturday, Jan 20, to the space-facing port of the station’s Harmony module.
The NASA, Axiom Space, and SpaceX teams are now conducting integrated operations which begins during the spacecraft’s approach to the International Space Station. NASA maintains mission responsibility during integrated operations, which continues during the crew’s stay aboard the orbiting laboratory conducting science, education, and commercial activities, and concludes once Dragon exits the area of the space station.
When Axiom Space Mission 3 arrives to the International Space Station, it will be the third mission with an entirely private crew to visit the orbiting laboratory.
The welcome ceremony is expected to start shortly after the Dragon’s hatch opens at approximately 7:20 a.m. Live mission coverage will end with the conclusion of the ceremony.
The third all private astronaut mission lifted off at 4:49 p.m. EST Thursday, Jan. 18, on a Falcon 9 rocket from NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida.
Station Awaits Dragon Carrying Four Ax-3 Astronauts
The SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket lifts off from Kennedy Space Center carrying four Axiom Mission 3 astronauts aboard the Dragon Freedom spacecraft. Credit: SpaceX
The seven-member Expedition 70 crew will welcome the third private astronaut mission from Axiom Space to the International Space Station on Saturday. The Axiom Mission 3 (Ax-3) mission lifted off from the Kennedy Space Center in Florida on Thursday carrying four astronauts aboard the SpaceX Dragon spacecraft. The foursome will conduct a two-week research and education mission on the orbital outpost.
Station Flight Engineers Loral O’Hara and Jasmin Moghbeli, both from NASA, will be on duty monitoring Dragon when it begins its automated approach and rendezvous. Dragon will dock to the forward port on the station’s Harmony module at around 4:19 a.m. EST on Saturday. About an hour-and-a-half later, the hatches will open and Ax-3 Commander Michael Lopez-Alegria will enter the space station followed by Pilot Walter Villadei and Mission Specialists Alper Gezeravci and Marcus Wandt.
Coverage will air live beginning at 2:30 a.m. Saturday on the NASA+ streaming service, NASA TV, the NASA app, YouTube, and the agency’s website. Learn how to stream NASA TV through a variety of platforms, including social media.
Lopez-Alegria, a dual citizen of the United States and Spain, is making his second visit to the station as a private astronaut from Axiom Space. This will be Lopez-Alegria’s sixth time to space. The three other Ax-3 crew members, Villadei from Italy, Gezeravci from Turkey, and Wandt from Sweden, are each making their first flight to space.
O’Hara and Moghbeli had light duty on the orbital outpost on Friday ahead of a busy day of dual crew operations on Saturday. The two NASA astronauts began Friday with housecleaning tasks and computer maintenance before taking the afternoon off. Astronauts Andreas Mogensen from ESA (European Space Agency) and Satoshi Furukawa from JAXA (Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency) helped out with the lab tidying duties before splitting up to service science hardware and tablet computers. The ESA and JAXA duo also had a light duty day taking half the day off at the end of the week.
The station’s three cosmonauts from Roscosmos stayed busy throughout Friday focusing on their schedule of science and maintenance. Five-time station flight engineer Oleg Kononenko started his day installing software on a computer in the Nauka science module then inspected surfaces inside the Zvezda service module. Flight Engineer Nikolai Chub jogged on a treadmill for a fitness assessment before studying how magnetic and electrical fields affect fluid physics. Flight Engineer Konstantin Borisov spent his day on a variety of life support and orbital plumbing work in the space station’s Roscosmos segment.
Ax-3 Go for Launch; Crew Continues Space Botany and Fluid Research
The SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket with the Dragon crew ship atop blasts off on April 9, 2022, from NASA’s Kennedy Space Center carrying the first private astronauts to the space station during Axiom Mission-1. Credit: SpaceX
Axiom Mission 3 (Ax-3) is go for launch as four private astronauts gear up to head to the space station later this afternoon. Space botany and fluid research continue into Thursday for the Expedition 70 crew members as they await the arrival of Ax-3.
The third private astronaut mission to the International Space Station is scheduled to lift off from Launch Complex 39A at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida at 4:49 p.m. EST today, Jan. 18. Ax-3 crew members, Commander Michael López-Alegría, Pilot Walter Villadei of Italy, Mission Specialist Alper Gezeravcı of Turkey, and ESA (European Space Agency) project astronaut Marcus Wandt of Sweden, will launch aboard the SpaceX Dragon spacecraft. Scheduled to arrive to the station at 5:15 a.m. Saturday, Jan. 20, the quartet will spend about two weeks conducting science and research in microgravity before returning to Earth.
After yesterday’s initial harvest aboard the orbital lab, the second and third round of wild-type tomatoes were harvested from Plant Habitat-06 by NASA Flight Engineer Loral O’Hara. The investigation takes a look at the physiological and genetic responses to defense activation and immune function in tomatoes during spaceflight. O’Hara also spent part of her day checking hardware for the upcoming arrival of Ax-3.
Fluid research that began yesterday continued into Thursday as Flight Engineers Jasmin Moghbeli of NASA and Satoshi Furukawa of JAXA (Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency) performed root tests for root zone, flow resistance, phase distribution, and stability in Plant Water Management 5. In the evening, the duo then conducted ultrasounds of their necks, clavicles, shoulders, and behind their knees.
ESA (European Space Agency) Commander Andreas Mogensen took over work with Plant Management 5, testing the performance of the separator and water trap before draining and stowing the facility.
Two Cosmonauts teamed up in the afternoon—Flight Engineers Oleg Kononenko and Nikolai Chub—to remove and replace the heat exchanger unit in the air conditioning system. Kononenko later conducted a cargo audit in the Prichal module. Flight Engineer Konstantin Borisov ran a Pilot-T session in the morning, an ongoing experiment to practice piloting techniques, before performing a storage audit in the Nauka module.
Ax-3 Launch Date Adjusted; Crew Harvests Plants and Conducts Fluid Research
A SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket with the company’s Dragon spacecraft aboard is seen on the launch pad at Launch Complex 39A ahead of Axiom Mission 3 launch. Credit: SpaceX
As part of NASA’s efforts to open access to space, SpaceX and Axiom Space now are targeting no earlier than 4:49 p.m. EST Thursday, Jan. 18, for launch of the third private mission to the International Space Station. The date adjustment for Axiom Mission 3 (Ax-3) allows additional time for SpaceX to complete data analysis of the parachute system energy modulator—the straps that connect the Dragon spacecraft’s parachute bag to the parachute door.
Following Dragon’s return on its 29th commercial resupply services mission to station, SpaceX observed some of the stitches didn’t pull through in the expected manner. While there is built-in margin through multiple energy modulators, SpaceX felt it was prudent to evaluate recent test data and this condition has been corrected on Ax-3. These straps are folded and stitched together such that when they pull apart, the connecting stitches intentionally break, allowing the straps to pull apart at a constant force. This regulates the amount of load applied to the main parachutes, which takes place as the parachute door and drogues extract the mains out of the spacecraft during the handoff from drogues to mains.
SpaceX proactively wanted to inspect the energy modulators on the Ax-3 parachutes and the team removed the parachute door this past week, inspected the energy modulators, correct alignment of the modulators, and then re-installed the doors.
SpaceX and NASA continue to work together on future flight hardware procedures.
For more information, listen to a replay of the Axiom Mission 3 prelaunch news conference.
Aboard the space station, the first wild-type tomatoes from Plant Habitat-06 were harvested aboard the orbital lab today by NASA Flight Engineer Loral O’Hara. Part of an ongoing suite of experiments, this specific investigation takes a look at the physiological and genetic responses to defense activation and immune function in tomatoes during spaceflight.
While space botany was underway, two crew members conducted fluid research with the Plant Water Management 5 system. In the morning, NASA Flight Engineer Jasmin Moghbeli prepped fluids and primed the facility after installing it yesterday. Moghbeli also tested the hydroponic flow of the system. ESA (European Space Agency) Commander Andreas Mogensen later took over, spot checking the fluidic test cell. Mogensen also completed a VR Mental Care session, which demonstrates the use of virtual reality for mental relaxation.
JAXA (Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency) Flight Engineer Satoshi Furukawa was tasked with a suite of maintenance activities throughout the day. He performed tech troubleshooting in the morning, then set up the Internal Ball Camera in the Kibo Laboratory. Afterward, he analyzed water samples from the water processor assembly before cleaning air quality monitor vents. His day wrapped with some routine orbital plumbing.
Maintenance and research were at the forefront of Wednesday’s schedule for the Roscosmos trio. Flight Engineer Konstantin Borisov replaced dust collector filters in the Zarya module, then inspected the thermal control system pump panel that was installed yesterday. Flight Engineer Oleg Kononenko conducted additional maintenance in the Zvezda service module, then moved on to record vibrations of structural elements in the Poisk module. To wrap up the day, Flight Engineer Nikolai Chub completed an experiment that investigates liquid phases in microgravity.
