Minutes before a warm front brought heavy showers to Kennedy Space Center, SpaceX launched Crew Dragon aboard a Falcon 9 for Axiom Space on a chartered flight to the International Space Station at 4:49 PM EST this evening. The all-European crew is expected to dock at ISS in two days time, and stay aboard the station until February 3, 2024.
The 45th Weather Squadron has released its official Launch Mission Execution Forecast for tomorrow’s planned crewed launch of Axiom-3 by SpaceX. According to forecasters, there is less than a 5% Probability of Violation of weather conditions, meaning the weather is expected to be almost perfect, especially by Florida standards: they expect a 95% or greater chance of acceptable weather conditions. The launch is planned for 5:11 PM EST. Once in orbit, the astronauts will travel to the International Space Station for an anticipated 14-day stay.
NASA astronauts Nicole Mann and Doug Wheelock recently participated in testing a sub-scale mockup elevator for SpaceX’s Starship human landing system (HLS) at the company’s Hawthorne, California headquarters. Astronaut input is a vital component of spacecraft design, giving the people who will actually use the equipment a chance to test progress so far and to provide feedback from a crew perspective. This feedback often informs and evolves the design.
Axiom Mission 3, the first all-European private mission to the International Space Station, will launch no earlier than January 17, 2024 from Kennedy Space Center, the company announced today. The astronauts will fly aboard a Crew Dragon boosted by a SpaceX Falcon 9 and will depart from LC-39A.
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