Washington: The Falcon 9 carrier rocket with the Crew Dragon spacecraft and a commercial crew of four people has lifted off from NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida, SpaceX informs.
The Sunday live broadcast from SpaceX showed that the Axiom Mission 2 (Ax-2) was launched at 5:37 p.m. Eastern Time (21:37 GMT on Sunday).
Falcon 9’s separated first stage is expected to land at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station not far from the liftoff location.
This is the second time that Houston-based Axiom Space is sending a commercial crew to the International Space Station (ISS). The Ax-2 crew includes retired NASA astronaut commander Peggy Whitson, US pilot John Shoffner, Saudi fighter pilot Ali Alqarni, and research technician Rayyanah Barnawi, who will become the first Saudi woman in space. They will participate in the scientific work at the ISS along with the station’s regular crew.
The first Axiom Space crewed mission (Ax-1) was carried out in April, 2022.
