Liftoff is scheduled for 5:37 p.m. EST Sunday, May 21, from Pad 39A at Kennedy Space Center in Florida.
Forecasters expect there to be a 60% chance of “going off” conditions on the board.
About eight minutes after liftoff, the first stage of the Falcon 9 booster will aim to land back in Landing Zone 1 at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station, producing a sonic boom.
Axiom-2 is the second entirely private crewed mission to the International Space Station for Houston-based Axiom Space. It was contracted to NASA.
The mission is expected to last about ten days. Eight docked at the International Space Station and two days to travel.
After disembarking, the four-man crew will return to Earth to land at a location off the coast of Florida, in either the Gulf of Mexico or the Atlantic Ocean, which will be determined by weather conditions.
Former NASA astronaut PeggyWhitson, director of human spaceflight at Axiom, will lead the mission.
Whitson is joined by one spaceflight participant and government-sponsored astronauts:
Mission pilot John Shoffner
Mission Specialists Ali Al-Qarni and Rayana Barnawi: the second and third Saudi citizens to fly into space, the first to visit the International Space Station, and the first astronauts sponsored by the Saudi government
The four astronauts will launch aboard SpaceX’s Freedom capsule Crew Dragon.
Launched by NASA astronauts Kjell Lindgren, Bob Haynes, Jessica Watkins and European astronaut Samantha Cristoforetti, members of SpaceX’s Crew-4 mission in April 2022.
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