🚀Last week in space for Ax-3

Hi friends, it’s your Space Coast correspondent James Sparvero and right now, 250 miles above the Earth, the four astronauts of the third commercial mission to the International Space Station are beginning their final week working on 30 science experiments in microgravity.

Axiom Space shared a new mission update over the weekend as half of the crew, retired NASA astronaut Michael López-Alegría and Italian Air Force Colonel Walter Villadei, talked about their daily activities. The other two crew members are Marcus Wandt of Sweden and Alper Gezeravci, the first person in space from Turkey.

Villadei, who last year flew to suborbital space with Virgin Galactic, talked about adjusting to eating in low-Earth orbit (something his commander has now done on six different trips to space). López-Alegría (Mike LA, as colleagues call him) commented on the challenge of doing anything in the weightlessness of the orbiting laboratory.

“Everything you do just takes a lot more time,” MLA said. “You have to figure out how to stabilize yourself first. Even typing on a keyboard, believe it or not, is enough force to push yourself away.”

Villadei, the Italian, then said he was looking forward to eating pasta over the remainder of their trip (hopefully, space spaghetti isn’t heavy on sauce).

Tuesday, the crew will be onboard as SpaceX launches a supply mission to the station. Then on Saturday, the crew is scheduled to depart the International Space Station, riding their Dragon capsule back home to a splashdown somewhere off the Florida peninsula.

If plans don’t change, Axiom Space says it will fly another private crew to the station later this year. By then, Axiom could be two years away from its own space station beginning to launch its first modules. These private flights precede Axiom’s commercial space station which plans to ultimately be a replacement to the ISS once retired at the end of the decade.

📧 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!