{"id":10203,"date":"2024-01-17T19:06:13","date_gmt":"2024-01-17T11:06:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wp-productionenv-bjg9h2g2bgg5b8aa.southeastasia-01.azurewebsites.net\/news\/spacex-readies-falcon-9-for-commercial-flight-to-space-station\/"},"modified":"2024-01-17T19:06:13","modified_gmt":"2024-01-17T11:06:13","slug":"spacex-readies-falcon-9-for-commercial-flight-to-space-station","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/news\/spacex-readies-falcon-9-for-commercial-flight-to-space-station\/","title":{"rendered":"SpaceX readies Falcon 9 for commercial flight to space station"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Update: SpaceX has delayed the launch of the Axiom 3 mission to Thursday.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n<figure id=\"attachment_65098\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-65098\" style=\"width: 678px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><img fetchpriority=\"high\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/spaceflightnow.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/01\/20240117-Remotes-Pad-Shot.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"678\" height=\"452\" class=\"size-full wp-image-65098\" srcset=\"https:\/\/spaceflightnow.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/01\/20240117-Remotes-Pad-Shot.jpg 678w, https:\/\/spaceflightnow.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/01\/20240117-Remotes-Pad-Shot-300x200.jpg 300w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 678px) 100vw, 678px\"><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-65098\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Dragon Freedom stands ready for launch Wednesday morning at pad 39A at the Kennedy Space Center. Photo: Michael Cain\/Spaceflight Now.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>An international four-man crew strapped into a SpaceX capsule atop a Falcon 9 rocket at the Kennedy Space Center Tuesday for a dress-rehearsal countdown that sets the stage for launch Wednesday on a privately-funded research mission to the International Space Station.<\/p>\n<p>Retired NASA astronaut Michael L\u00f3pez-Alegr\u00eda, Italian co-pilot Walter Villadei, European Space Agency astronaut Marcus Wandt of Sweden and Turkey\u2019s Alper Gezeravci spent the afternoon rehearsing launch-day procedures aboard their crew Dragon spacecraft before departing the pad to clear the way for an engine test firing.<\/p>\n<p>As few hours later, SpaceX engineers fired up the Falcon 9\u2019s first stage engines to verify their readiness for blastoff. If all goes well, L\u00f3pez-Alegr\u00eda and his three crewmates will strap back in Wednesday for launch at 5:11 p.m. EST, kicking off an automated one-and-a-half-day rendezvous with the space station.<\/p>\n<p>During a late Tuesday teleconference, officials said the rocket and spacecraft were ready to go after last-minute fixes for a parachute issue that cropped up after a recent cargo flight and work to replace connectors holding the Crew Dragon to the Falcon 9\u2019s upper stage that did not appear to be torqued, or tightened, to specifications.<\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"YouTube video player\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/KH77tfuFClM\" width=\"678\" height=\"381\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen=\"allowfullscreen\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>Few details were provided, but Benji Reed, SpaceX senior director of human spaceflight programs, said the work was done in \u201can abundance of caution\u201d and \u201cwe\u2019re ready to fly.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>It will be the third piloted flight to the station sponsored by Houston-based Axiom Space in an ongoing NASA-sanctioned program to increase private-sector utilization of the outpost. Axiom, in turn, is using the flights to gain the experience needed to launch and operate a commercial space station after the ISS is retired at the end of the decade.<\/p>\n<p>L\u00f3pez-Alegr\u00eda, one of America\u2019s most experienced astronauts, made three trips to space aboard NASA\u2019s shuttle and once aboard a Russian Soyuz spacecraft. After retiring from NASA, he went to work for Axiom and commanded the company\u2019s first commercial mission to the ISS in April 2022. He is a citizen of both the United States and Spain.<\/p>\n<p>His crewmates for the Ax-3 mission are all veteran European military pilots or flight engineers with extensive management experience. Wandt and Gezeravci are making their first space flight while Villadei participated in an up-and-down trip to the edge of space last year aboard Virgin Galactic\u2019s winged sub-orbital spaceplane.<\/p>\n<figure id=\"attachment_65097\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-65097\" style=\"width: 678px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/spaceflightnow.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/01\/20240117-Axiom-3-WDR-Crew-Feature-Image.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"678\" height=\"381\" class=\"size-full wp-image-65097\" srcset=\"https:\/\/spaceflightnow.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/01\/20240117-Axiom-3-WDR-Crew-Feature-Image.jpg 678w, https:\/\/spaceflightnow.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/01\/20240117-Axiom-3-WDR-Crew-Feature-Image-300x169.jpg 300w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 678px) 100vw, 678px\"><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-65097\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">The Axiom 3 crew pictured during a countdown practice. Left to right: commander Michael L\u00f3pez-Alegr\u00eda, Turkey\u2019s Alper GezeravciEuropean Space Agency astronaut Marcus Wandt of Sweden and Italian co-pilot Walter Villadei. Photo: SpaceX.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>Assuming an on-time launch Wednesday, the Ax-3 fliers will dock with the space station early Friday, temporarily boosting the lab\u2019s crew to 11. During their two-week stay, the Ax-3 fliers plans to carry out more than 30 experiments primarily devoted to learning more about the effects of weightlessness on a variety of physical and cognitive parameters.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThis \u2026 is the first all-European mission with four European astronauts representing their countries as well as the European Space Agency,\u201d said Lucie Low, Axiom\u2019s chief scientist.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cSo we\u2019re excited to be building on the successes of Ax-2 by continuing to expand the global microgravity research community and enabling new researchers from many countries to access microgravity for sometimes the first time.\u201d<\/p>\n<figure id=\"attachment_65099\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-65099\" style=\"width: 678px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/spaceflightnow.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/01\/20240116-Static-FireNEW.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"678\" height=\"452\" class=\"size-full wp-image-65099\" srcset=\"https:\/\/spaceflightnow.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/01\/20240116-Static-FireNEW.jpg 678w, https:\/\/spaceflightnow.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/01\/20240116-Static-FireNEW-300x200.jpg 300w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 678px) 100vw, 678px\"><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-65099\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">SpaceX conducted a static fire of the Falcon 9 first stage on Tuesday, Jan. 16, 2024. Photo: Adam Bernstein\/Spaceflight Now.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>On a lighter note, the Italian company Barilla has provided ready-made pasta that will be heated up and taste tested, Axiom says, \u201cas part of an effort to develop a broader range of tasty foods in space for future space travelers.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Wednesday\u2019s flight will be the 12th piloted trip to orbit by SpaceX\u2019s Crew Dragon. NASA sponsored one piloted test flight and has so far sent seven long-duration crews to the station. SpaceX has launched two commercial flights to the ISS for Axiom and one Earth-orbit mission paid for by tech entrepreneur Jared Isaacman.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Update: SpaceX has delayed the launch of the Axiom 3 mission to Thursday. Dragon Freedom stands ready for launch Wednesday morning at pad 39A at the Kennedy Space Center. Photo: Michael Cain\/Spaceflight Now. An international four-man crew strapped into a SpaceX capsule atop a Falcon 9 rocket at the Kennedy Space Center Tuesday for a [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"inline_featured_image":false,"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[1472,376,235],"class_list":["post-10203","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news","tag-axiom-3","tag-axiom-space","tag-crew-dragon"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10203"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=10203"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10203\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=10203"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=10203"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=10203"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}