Washington 2nd, September : NASA and American space infrastructure company Axiom Space have agreed to sign a contract to launch the second private mission of astronauts to the International Space Station, to be scheduled in the second quarter of 2023.The space mission, codenamed Axiom Mission 2 (Ax-2) will take off at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida and will then take off for the space station.
After docking, the Axiom astronauts will spend 10 days on the spacecraft’s orbiting laboratory.
“With every new step we are working with commercial space firms to increase the economic activity in low Earth orbit,”” stated Phil McAlister director of commercial space at NASA Headquarters.
“In addition to facilitating the orbital access of many more people, we’re hopeful that these private space missions will assist the industry to learn and improve their skills to conduct these mission,” he added.
NASA and Axiom mission planners will coordinate activities in orbit for private astronauts who will work in coordination with crew members of the space station and flight controllers in the ground the space agency stated in an announcement.
“Axiom continues to finance private space missions and flights to the International Space Station to build our expertise and draw new customers in preparation for the launch of our space station, Axiom Station,” said Derek Hassmann, Axiom’s chief of Mission Integration and Operations.
The Ax-2 crew members will be training for their mission with NASA as well as international partners and SpaceX who Axiom is contracted to be a a launch service provider for transport between and to the space station.
In the month of December, 2021 NASA made public the choice of Axiom Space to negotiate regarding the second private mission of an astronaut.
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