Axiom-2, the second privately conducted mission to the International Space Station, launched on Sunday. The mission is being carried out in cooperation with Saudi Arabia, where the country booked seats for two passengers, Ali Alqarni and Rayyanah Barnawi. John Shoffner, a racer and entrepreneur, paid for his seat himself. The crew is accompanied by Peggy Whitson, a record-breaking astronaut who has been to space three times for NASA and flies for Axiom.
A Falcon 9 rocket carrying a SpaceX Crew Dragon space capsule lifted off from Kennedy Space Center in Florida and is now on its way to the ISS. NASA estimates that the capsule should arrive at the ISS at 3:16 p.m. CEST on Monday. The docking process will be carried out automatically, and the four passengers will be awaited by the crew of seven.
Rayyanah Barnawi is the first woman from Saudi Arabia to reach space. She is a research laboratory technician with experience in breast cancer and cancer stem cell research and she will carry out experiments in this area on board the ISS. Ali Alqarni is a fighter pilot in the Saudi Air Force.
Axiom is charging around $50 million per person to participate in their space program. This is the second mission of Axiom Space, the first of which took place in the spring of 2022 with Michael López-Alegría, Larry Connor, Eytan Stibbe, and Mark Pathy. Although Saudi Arabia’s state astronaut program is now involved in the second mission, it is considered private because it was based on a commercial agreement between Axiom Space and Riyadh.
