Axiom Space’s visit to the International Space Station is a milestone for commercial human spaceflight
A SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket launched Ax-1, a mission from Houston-based company Axiom Space, today at 11:17 a.m. EDT from NASA's Kennedy Space Center here on Florida's Space Coast.
Ax-1 marked the fifth flight for this Falcon 9's first stage. And the booster made its fifth landing as well, coming down for a pinpoint touchdown 9.5 minutes after liftoff on the SpaceX droneship A Shortfall of Gravitas, which was stationed in the Atlantic Ocean. Stibbe was also a fighter pilot with the Israel Air Force and will be the second Israeli person ever to reach space. The first, Ilan Ramon, was an astronaut who died during the space shuttle Columbia tragedy in 2003. In Ramon's memory, Stibbe and the Ramon family co-founded the nonprofit Ramon Foundation.
"This is real work that is requiring a lot of preparation, and I don't think it'll be relaxing," he added. "The crew is very well trained; they've spent many hundreds of hours prepping for this flight," record-setting former NASA astronaut Peggy Whitson, who is now Axiom Space's director of human spaceflight, said during an April 1 pre-flight news conference.
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