After spending approximately nine days at the orbiting laboratory, the four crew members of Axiom Space’s second all-private astronaut mission to the International Space Station (ISS), Axiom Mission 2 (Ax-2), are scheduled to undock from the International Space Station no earlier than 11:05 a.m. EDT on Tuesday, May 30, to begin the journey home.
Ax-2 astronauts lifted off on Sunday, May 21, on a Falcon 9 rocket from Launch Complex 39A at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida. The SpaceX Dragon carrying the crew autonomously docked to the space-facing port of the station’s Harmony module on May 22.
The crew, comprising Commander Peggy Whitson, Pilot John Shoffner, and Mission Specialists Ali Alqarni and Rayyanah Barnawi, will depart in a SpaceX Dragon spacecraft and splashdown off the coast of Florida. The spaceship will return to Earth with more than 300 pounds of cargo, including NASA hardware and data from over 20 different experiments.
NASA will provide live coverage of the undocking and departure of the Axiom Mission 2, starting with hatch closure preparations at 9 a.m. Tuesday, May 30, on NASA TV, the NASA app, and the agency’s website.
The Axiom Space Mission 2 is the second mission with an entirely private crew to visit the orbiting laboratory.
