The mission arrived at its destination.
The International Space Station has a capsule carrying four astronauts docked with it at 8:29 a.m. The chase began on Friday morning with a launch atop a Falcon 9 rocket. The docking was delayed for 44 minutes due to a video issue on the station, but everything went smoothly.
I hope you enjoyed the extra half-orbit in Dragon, or at least found it memorable, said the flight controllers after docking.
"We are happy to be here, even though we are a bit late," said Michael L. Lopez-Alegr, a former NASA astronauts and station commander. He and his crew rode the Crew Dragon to the station.
There are live updates on the private mission to space station.
The first-ever fully private crewed mission to the space station was organized by the Houston-based company Axiom Space. According to reports, Larry, Mark, and Eytan paid around $55 million for the trip.
During the docking approach, cameras on the space station captured stunning views of the spacecraft during a sunrise and a half moon in the distance.
The first and second images are image 1 and image 2.
Image 1 of 2
Image 2 of 2
Space tourists have been to the International Space Station before, but never like this: All previous paying customers got there aboard Russian Soyuz spacecraft commanded by cosmonauts employed by the Russian federal space agency.
The trio has trained hard for the mission and will carry out a variety of tasks.
The crew hasn't stopped smiling since liftoff.
There are smiles that are still being worn by the crew this morning.
The crew found some surprises after their first day in space.
Connor tried to eat a muffin, but it didn't turn out as he had expected.
The hatches between the Dragon and the International Space Station are scheduled to open two hours after docking.
If everything goes according to plan, Ax-1 will be the beginning of the space. The company has booked several flights to the International Space Station with other companies, and it hopes to begin launching modules to the space station in late 2024. The modules will eventually detach from the space station and become a free-flying commercial space station.
The first all-private crewed mission of any type is not Ax-1. Inspiration4 is a four-person flight funded and commanded by a tech billionaire. He and his crewmates were on Earth for three days in September of 2021.
Mike Wall is the author of Out There, a book about the search for alien life. You can follow him on the social networking site. We encourage you to follow us on social media.
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