December 1, 2024

Private Ax-1 Astronauts Prep for Departure From Space Station As Crew-4 Mission Nears Launch

The existing seven-member Expedition 67 team will sleep in on Wednesday following the late night departure of the Ax-1 team. Marshburn and NASA Flight Engineers Raja Chari and Kayla Barron along with ESA (European Space Agency) Flight Engineer Matthias Maurer will also check out their Crew Dragon matches ahead of their departure aboard the SpaceX Dragon Endurance in a couple of weeks. Four commercial team astronauts representing NASA and ESA are set up to introduce at 5:26 a.m. EDT on Saturday from Kennedy inside the SpaceX Dragon Freedom crew ship and dock to the exact same port vacated by the Ax-1 mission on Sunday at 6 a.m. Axiom Mission 1 astronauts Michael Lopez Algeria, Larry Connor, Mark Pathy, and Eytan Stibbe docked to the zenith port of the Harmony module of the International Space Station on April 9, 2022, following a launch on April 8 on the SpaceX Crew Dragon Endeavour spacecraft aboard a Falcon 9 rocket.

A SpaceX Crew Dragon spacecraft approaches the International Space Station for docking in this illustration. Credit: NASA/SpaceX
On Tuesday morning, NASA Commander Tom Marshburn and his six Expedition 67 flight engineers held a goodbye event for the four-member Axiom Mission 1 (Ax-1) crew. Four SpaceX Crew-4 astronauts reached the Kennedy Space Center in Florida at the exact same time to get ready for their weekend launch to the International Space Station.
View the Axiom Mission 1 farewell event on YouTube.
The personal quartet then spoke about the research and education events they conducted on the station and thanked the Expedition 67 crew for hosting and assisting them throughout their 10-day stay. Ax-1 Commander Michael Lopez-Alegria will lead Pilot Larry Connor and Mission Specialists Mark Pathy and Eytan Stibbe back to Earth inside the SpaceX Dragon Endeavour spacecraft. At 10 p.m. EDT today, they will undock from the Harmony modules space-facing port, which will be transmitted live on NASA TELEVISION, NASAs website, and the NASA app.

The Expedition 67 team said farewell to the Axiom Mission 1 crew today ahead of their departure prepared for Tuesday night. Credit: NASA
The present seven-member Expedition 67 team will sleep in on Wednesday following the late night departure of the Ax-1 team. The four astronauts and three cosmonauts will get right back to work on Thursday with more science and maintenance. Marshburn and NASA Flight Engineers Raja Chari and Kayla Barron together with ESA (European Space Agency) Flight Engineer Matthias Maurer will likewise examine out their Crew Dragon matches ahead of their departure aboard the SpaceX Dragon Endurance in a couple of weeks. Roscosmos Flight Engineers Oleg Artemyev, Denis Matveev, and Sergey Korsakov will tend to their enhance of Russian area research study and laboratory upkeep jobs.
The station will stay at a seven-member crew status for just a couple of days until the arrival of the SpaceX Crew-4 mission. 4 business team astronauts representing NASA and ESA are scheduled to launch at 5:26 a.m. EDT on Saturday from Kennedy inside the SpaceX Dragon Freedom team ship and dock to the very same port left by the Ax-1 mission on Sunday at 6 a.m.
Axiom Mission 1 astronauts Michael Lopez Algeria, Larry Connor, Mark Pathy, and Eytan Stibbe docked to the zenith port of the Harmony module of the International Space Station on April 9, 2022, following a launch on April 8 on the SpaceX Crew Dragon Endeavour spacecraft aboard a Falcon 9 rocket. The 4 crew members will perform an eight-day objective living and working aboard the microgravity lab before undocking to return to Earth on April 17.