Astronauts’ first all-private mission to the International Space Station (ISS) is about to head home, and you can watch the departure live.
a SpaceX A Dragon capsule carrying the ship’s four crew members Ax mission 1 The orbiting laboratory is scheduled to leave today (April 23) after a two-week stay. Gates between Dragon and the ISS will close at approximately 4:30 p.m. EDT (2030 GMT), and SpaceX will descend just two hours later.
You can see these sights live here on Space.com, courtesy of NASA, or directly via the space agency. Coverage of the hatch closing will begin at 4:15pm EST (2015 GMT), and the undocking webcast will begin at 6:15pm EST (2215 GMT).
Live updates: Ax-1 space station special mission
Related: Axiom Space: Building the Economy Off Earth
If all goes according to plan, the Dragon capsule, called Endeavor, will blast off the coast of Florida on Sunday (April 24) at 1:46 p.m. EDT (1746 GMT). You can follow the procedure directly here too, courtesy of Axiom Space, the company that organized the Ax-1 mission. Axiom’s webcast will begin at 12:45 PM EST (1645 GMT) on Sunday.
The Ax-1 is led by former NASA astronaut Michael Lopez-Alegria, who is now the vice president of business development for Axiom. The other three crew members pay customers – American Larry Connor, Canadian Mark Pathy and Israeli Eitan Stipe.
ax 1 Launched on a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket on April 8 and arrived at the International Space Station the next day. The mission was supposed to leave the orbital laboratory on Tuesday (April 19), but the weather is bad in the spray area Push out a few days back.
This delay affected SpaceX’s next astronauts’ mission, NASA’s Crew-4 flight. Crew-4 was scheduled to take off on Saturday, but it’s taking off now Not before Tuesday (April 26). NASA officials said they want a two-day window between the launch of the Ax-1 and the launch of Crew-4, to allow time for data analysis and other preparations.
Mike Wall is the author of “AbroadBook (Great Grand Publishing House, 2018; illustrated by Carl Tate), a book on the search for extraterrestrials. Follow him on Twitter Tweet embed. Follow us on Twitter Tweet embed or on Facebook.
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