BREVARD COUNTY, Fla. – Another crewed launch from Florida’s Space Coast is scheduled next week, this time with Axiom Space as its figurehead.
Axiom Mission 3, or Ax-3, will be Houston-based Axiom Space’s third crewed mission, using SpaceX hardware to send commercial astronauts to the International Space Station. Axiom Space announced Wednesday it had successfully completed its internal Flight Readiness Review for Ax-3, bringing it another step closer to a planned Falcon 9 launch at 5:11 p.m. ET, Jan. 17, at Kennedy Space Center.
Ax-3 crewmembers will plan to spend 14 days aboard the space station performing microgravity research, technology demonstrations and outreach engagements, according to Axiom Space. If all goes well, they’ll dock there around 5:15 a.m. ET on Jan. 19.
Comprising the latest roster — which Axiom notes will be the first all-European commercial astronaut lineup to launch to the space station — is Walter Villadei of Italy as pilot and Michael López-Alegría of Spain as commander with mission specialists Marcus Wandt of Sweden and Alper Gezeravcı of Turkey.
[EXCLUSIVE: Become a News 6 Insider (it’s FREE) | PINIT! Share your photos]
On a Zoom call Thursday with reporters, López-Alegría said the Axiom missions continue to set the stage for Axiom’s plans to build its own space station by the end of the decade.
“We want that commercial space station to be a destination not only for the users of the ISS today, but also many more people, entities, researchers, countries around the world,” he said.
Addressing tourists from around the world coming to Brevard County to watch a record number of launches, Peter Cranis from Brevard County’s tourism office said 100 expected launches this year on the Space Coast could generate more record tourism numbers, as well.
The executive director of the Space Coast Office of Tourism said 2023 tourism tax collections totaled more than $25.5 million.
“So it’s very possible with over 100 launches that we could see greater crowds, and what greater reason to have a day at the beach and watch a launch,” Cranis said. “I just think they go together.”
The mission’s Launch Readiness Review, planned for Tuesday, will be its next milestone, according to Axiom Space. Leaders with Axiom, NASA and SpaceX will gather to discuss the launch vehicle, mission hardware and readiness for launch, with a pre-launch media teleconference set for about an hour afterward.
Ax-1 launched in April 2022 from Kennedy Space Center, marking SpaceX’s first private charter flight to the space station after two years of taking up NASA astronauts. López-Alegría, a former NASA astronaut, was also on this flight, as well as businessmen Larry Connor, Mark Pathy and Eytan Stibbe. The mission was originally expected to last eight days as the private astronauts were kept busy with science experiments, but undocking was postponed for almost a week due to unfavorable weather at the splashdown site.
[RELATED: ‘Spectacular:’ Ax-1 astronauts discuss historic trip to ISS]
About a year later in May 2023, Ax-2 launched from KSC, sending a sonic boom across the Space Coast as the Falcon 9 booster landed at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station. Its crew included Peggy Whitson, a retired NASA astronaut, John Shoffner of Tennessee, and Ali Alqarni and Rayyanah Barnawi from the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. Axiom Space had said at this point that the three businessmen on Ax-1 paid $55 million each for the trip, but it didn’t give a price for Ax-2′s seats.
ClickOrlando.com will stream the Ax-3 launch live when it happens.
Get today’s headlines in minutes with Your Florida Daily: