On Saturday, a four-member crew, including Turkey’s inaugural astronaut, arrived at the International Space Station (ISS) for a two-week stay in a mission facilitated entirely through commercial means by Texas-based startup Axiom Space.
The rendezvous occurred approximately 37 hours after the Axiom quartet’s liftoff on Thursday evening from NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Cape Canaveral, Florida, aboard a rocketship.
Both the Crew Dragon spacecraft and the Falcon 9 rocket, responsible for carrying it into orbit, were provided, launched, and operated by Elon Musk’s SpaceX under a contract with Axiom. This marks the third such mission to the ISS arranged by Axiom since 2022.
Upon reaching the space station, the astronauts fall under the purview of NASA’s mission control operation in Houston.
The Crew Dragon autonomously docked with the ISS at 5:42 a.m. EDT as the two vehicles flew approximately 250 miles (400 km) over the South Pacific, according to a live NASA webcast.
Traveling at a hypersonic speed of about 17,500 miles per hour (28,200 km/h), both vehicles joined together in orbit. After docking, it was expected to take about two hours to pressurize and check the sealed passageway between the space station and the crew capsule for leaks before opening hatches and allowing the newly arrived astronauts to board the orbiting laboratory.
The Axiom-3 crew is set to spend approximately 14 days in microgravity, conducting over 30 scientific experiments, many of which focus on studying the effects of spaceflight on human health and disease.
The multinational team, led by Michael López-Alegría, included Italian Air Force Colonel Walter Villadei, Swedish aviator Marcus Wandt, and Alper Gezeravcı, a Turkish Air Force veteran and fighter pilot, marking Turkey’s first human spaceflight.
Upon arrival at the ISS, the Axiom-3 crew will be welcomed by the seven members of the station’s current regular crew, consisting of astronauts and cosmonauts from the United States, Japan, Denmark, and Russia.
Axiom Space, founded eight years ago in Houston, has become a key player in facilitating space travel for foreign governments and private individuals, charging at least $55 million per seat for its comprehensive services. The company is also involved in constructing a commercial space station, with plans to eventually replace the ISS, expected to retire around 2030. The ISS, launched in 1998, has been continuously occupied since 2000 under a U.S.-Russian-led partnership involving Canada, Japan, and the European Space Agency.
