After SpaceX launch from KSC, Axiom-1 private-astronaut mission docks with space station

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Beginning as a Friday morning picture-perfect launch of a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket at Kennedy Space Center, the Axiom-1 first all-private mission culminated about a day later by docking with the International Space Station about 258 miles above the Atlantic Ocean.

Nearly twenty-one hours after their 11:17 a.m. EDT liftoff from pad 39A in the Crew Dragon Endeavour capsule and private Axiom Space astronauts Michael López-Alegría, Larry Connor, Mark Pathy, and Eytan Stibbe officially began calling the International Space Station home for the next eight days at 8:29 a.m. EDT.

The docking was delayed slightly by an issue with a video feed, but by 8:40 a.m. EDT, a series of "hooks" securely connected the 27-foot Crew Dragon Endeavour to the orbiting outpost while traveling at nearly 17,500mph.

"I hope you enjoyed the extra half-orbit in Dragon or at least found it memorable," a SpaceX crew operations and resources engineer, or CORE, said from company headquarters in Hawthorne, California. "Crew Dragon Endeavour and MLA, welcome back. Eytan, Larry, and Mark, welcome to the International Space Station."

The trip marks the fifth time that Axiom-1 mission Commander Michael López-Alegría has made the trip to space now in three different spacecraft having previously flown in the space shuttle and Russian Soyuz capsule.

"We're happy to be here even though we're a bit late," said López-Alegría from Crew Dragon Endeavour. "Looking forward to the next chapter."

One hiccup along the way

Mirroring a perfect launch, the trip for the first all-private astronaut mission to the ISS was incredibly smooth, however, docking procedures experienced one slight hiccup that caused about a forty-five-minute delay.

Crew Dragon Endeavour was held about 20 meters from the ISS, at a point called waypoint 2, while ground controllers at NASA's Johnson Space Center in Houston worked on an issue to get a necessary camera view available on the station from the Crew Dragon Endeavour.

Once the video feed was received on the station, the docking approach and contact sequence only took a few minutes to complete.

Axiom-1 now, Axiom Station Later

The Axiom-1 mission marks the first all-private mission to the space station and is seen as a historical step forward in NASA's plan to develop a sustainable commercial economy in space.

Axiom Space has commissioned SpaceX for a total of four commercial flights to the space station, two of which have agreements with NASA as the agency's commercial partner to organize privately crewed missions.

In 2024 Axiom Space hopes to deliver and install its first private module to the ISS. The company will build onto their module and eventually detach from the ISS to develop their own free-flying space commercial space station called Axiom Station.

A short, but busy stay in space

After about an hour-and-a-half-long process of connecting station life support systems, the Crew Dragon Endeavour hatch was opened at 10:13 a.m. EDT.

The first all-private astronaut crew was welcomed aboard the ISS by the members of NASA's Crew-3 mission, Kayla Barron, Raja Chari, Thomas Marshburn, and Matthias Maurer.

Also present for the welcoming ceremony were the three Russian cosmonauts, Oleg Artemyev, Denis Matveev, and Sergey Korsakov.

The first through was Eytan Stibbe followed by Mark Pathy, Larry Connor.

Axiom-1 mission Commander López-Alegría was the last one to enter the space station doing so from a spacecraft named Endeavour for the second time in his career.

The four members of the Axiom-1 mission will remain on station for the next eight days bringing the total members living and working on the ISS to 11.

Axiom's three paying customers — Connor, Pathy, and Stibbe — have agreements with various private companies to conduct research, observations, and demonstrations during their short stay in orbit.

At the conclusion of their mission, the Axiom-1 private astronauts will board the Crew Dragon Endeavour capsule, undock from the ISS, and return to Earth for a splashdown off the coast of Florida.

Closer to undocking, SpaceX will select a splashdown zone that will be determined by weather conditions, choosing from a few options available in both the Gulf of Mexico and the Atlantic Ocean.

NASA's moon rocket test postponed again

Quietly announced on NASA's Artemis blog during Saturday morning's Crew Dragon docking and welcoming sequence, the agency said that the highly anticipated wet dress rehearsal of its Space Launch System rocket would again be postponed.

Earlier in the week after two attempts at the final major pre-launch test were scrubbed, the agency anticipated resuming the test on Saturday.

However, due to an issue with a pressure valve leading to a modified plan to only fill the SLS core stage, rather than the core and its upper stage, the agency decided to push the modified test to begin on Tuesday, April 12.

If all goes well during that modified test, NASA expects it to wrap up with a mock launch countdown and T-0 planned for Thursday, April 14.

For the latest, visit floridatoday.com/launchschedule.

Jamie Groh is a space reporter for Florida Today. You can contact her at JGroh@floridatoday.com. Follow her on Twitter at @AlteredJamie.

This article originally appeared on Florida Today: SpaceX launch culminates with private Axiom-1 mission ISS docking