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Crewed Ax-3 mission launches from Florida coast, heads to space station

Launch went off from Kennedy Space Center

BREVARD COUNTY, Fla. – Axiom Space sent its next crew of four to the International Space Station on Thursday as part of Axiom Mission 3, or Ax-3.

The launch happened at 4:49 p.m. from Launch Complex 39A at Kennedy Space Center.

The crewmembers consist of 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, the first all-European lineup to launch to the space station.

The four will spend 14 days at the space station conducting various research experiments.

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.

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.


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About the Authors
Brenda Argueta headshot

Brenda Argueta is a digital journalist who joined ClickOrlando.com in March 2021. She is the author of the Central Florida Happenings newsletter that goes out every Thursday.

James Sparvero headshot

James joined News 6 in March 2016 as the Brevard County Reporter. His arrival was the realization of a three-year effort to return to the state where his career began. James is from Pittsburgh, PA and graduated from Penn State in 2009 with a degree in Broadcast Journalism.

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