Thursday afternoon SpaceX launched the Axiom-3 mission out of Kennedy Space Center making it its first human spaceflight mission of the year. Another milestone first was it being the first entirely European crewed mission ever with all four astronauts holding citizenship from a European nation.
Axiom-3 shows again how human spaceflight has changed
At 4:49 P.M. ET SpaceX launched Crew Dragon Freedom on top of a Falcon 9 rocket from LC-39A at Kennedy Space Center. By the time the webcast started the four crew members were inside their spacecraft and closeout crews were already finishing up their task at the rocket. The stakes just as high, the journey as important as ever, the hype reduced to a short two and a half hour livestream.
In the past we’ve talked about how Axiom has made it possible to provide human spaceflight capabilities to nations that have none. On Ax-3 that capability continues at a new level, flying the first only European crew to space.
While ESA is hoping to one day build its own homegrown human spaceflight program, it has yet to do so. For decades ESA astronauts have relied on NASA and Russian rockets to launch research missions to the ISS. While the entire mission isn’t European, Axiom and SpaceX are both US companies, ESA now has way more opportunities to fly to space than before.
Commanding Ax-3 is veteran astronaut Michael López-Alegría (LA). This is LA’s six spaceflight, three Space Shuttle flights and Soyuz flight while with NASA and now two missions as an Axiom astronaut. NASA requires that a former NASA astronaut command any private mission to the ISS. However, LA also holds dual citizenship in the US and Spain, making him an European citizen as well.
Ax-3’s pilot is Walter Villadei, an Italian astronaut that was a backup for Ax-2 but also flew to space on Virgin Galactic’s Galactic-1 flight last year. Unlike Italian astronauts before him, Villadei is not an ESA astronaut but directly works with the Italian government.
The remaining crew members come from Sweden and Türkiye. Marcus Wandt, an ESA reserve astronaut, is on a short term contract with ESA to conduct research with full time ESA astronaut Andreas Mogensen already on the ISS. Alper Gezeravcı, the astronaut from Türkiye is the nation’s first. Yet another milestone moment that Axiom has orchestrated.
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SpaceX has gotten crewed missions to a science
Besides a one day delay to double check links between the Dragon and parachutes, the Ax-3 launch countdown was flawless. Crew ingress, hatch sealing, and fueling took place all on time and with zero issues.
SpaceX is expected to launch as many as five crewed missions this year, all while its nearest competitor, Boeing, is still hoping to perform its first crewed flight test. Two of those missions will be for NASA, two for Axiom (including Ax-3), and one more for Jared Isaacman’s Polaris Program.
It already seems like SpaceX has gotten into the swing of things with crewed spaceflight. Human spaceflight will never be routine, but it’s hard to say it doesn’t look it with how clean the last few countdowns have gone.
Axiom-3 is set to dock with the ISS at 4:19 A.M. ET tomorrow morning. Axiom’s live coverage of the event will begin at 2:30 A.M. ET, get some early rest today if you plan to watch it!
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