Hi friends, it’s your Space Coast correspondent James Sparvero happy to report the astronauts of the third commercial mission to the International Space Station have safely reached their destination and are now living and working in low-Earth orbit for the next two weeks.
After I watched Axiom Mission 3 launch Thursday at Kennedy Space Center, Michael López-Alegría, Walter Villadei, Alper Gezeravci and Marcus Wandt arrived Saturday morning at the space station in their SpaceX capsule.
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Like the Ax-1 and Ax-2 missions over the last two years, these private astronauts are also working on a couple dozen science experiments during their stay, alongside the other men and women on the orbiting laboratory. With Ax-3 being the first all-European commercial mission to the station, the 11 people on board right now represent seven different countries! (Gezaravci is the first person from Turkey in space).
The private flights from Axiom Space precede the company’s even more ambitious plans of building its own space station starting in 2026, and the fourth Axiom mission could launch later this year.
NASA reports the Ax-3 astronauts are expected to depart the space station on Feb. 3 and will splash down somewhere off the Florida coast.
If you missed the launch or would like to watch again, check out my video. As always, we love you when you share your best pictures with us too!
📧 Have any topics you’d like to discuss? Send me an email here.
👋 Here’s a little bit more about me.
Little did I know when watching Apollo 13 in the third grade that 20 years later, I was destined for a thrilling career as your Space Coast multimedia journalist.
Chemistry and biology weren’t so interesting to me in high school science, but I loved my Earth and Space class (Thanks, Mr. Lang).
Then in 2016, I traded Capitol correspondent in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, for space correspondent. I’m proud that my first live report at News 6 happened to be the first time SpaceX landed a Falcon 9 booster on a barge. What seems so routine now was a really big deal that day in our newsroom!
From there, I’ve covered the Commercial Crew program and the return of human spaceflight to Kennedy Space Center (Demo-2 launched on my 33rd birthday!)
Now, as our coverage looks forward to missions to the moon and Mars, I often tell others I have the best job in local news. Because after all I’ve seen so far, I think I would be bored working somewhere else. I even bought a house near the Cape with a great view to the north so I never miss a launch even when I’m not working.
After seven years on the beat, though, I still consider myself a young space reporter and I always look forward to learning something new with every assignment.
Have a great launch into the rest of your week!