How to Watch: Private Axiom Astronauts Depart ISS, Return to Earth
Following a 10-day stint aboard the In ternational Space Station, the four-member Axiom Mission 2 (Ax-2) crew will board a SpaceX Dragon craft and begin their journey home to Earth.
Today's joint Axiom Space and SpaceX operation(Opens in a new window) begins with hatch closure preparations and ends when the astronauts splash down off the coast of Florida.
Peggy Whitson, John Shoffner, Ali Alqarni, and Rayyanah Barnawi last week joined Expedition 69 members on the ISS for 10 days of scientific research, outreach, and commercial activities. It's the first private space mission to be commanded by a woman and to include private astronauts and those representing foreign governments (Barnawi and Alqarni are members of the inaugural Saudi national astronaut program).
Axiom's Director of Human Spaceflight and a former NASA astronaut, Whitson previously served as NASA's chief astronaut and the first female commander of the ISS. This trip also counts toward her record for the longest cumulative time in space by a NASA astronaut.
9 a.m. ET: NASA coverage begins for 9:10 a.m. hatch closure
10:45 a.m. ET: NASA coverage resumes for 11:05 a.m. undocking
Times are subject to change based on operations. NASA will cease streaming about 30 minutes after undocking—when joint operations with the Axiom Space and SpaceX mission teams end. Axiom is then set to resume coverage of the Dragon's re-entry and splashdown via its website.
"The Ax-2 mission represents both a culmination of NASA's efforts to foster a commercial market in low-Earth orbit and the beginning of a new era of space exploration that enables more people to fly on more kinds of missions," according to NASA.
"This partnership is changing the arc of human spaceflight history by
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