SpaceX plans to launch the Axiom Space Ax-3 mission, the third fully private mission to visit the International Space Station (ISS) on 2024-01-18 at 21:49 UTC from Launch Complex 39A at the Kennedy Space Center in Florida, with weather forecast as 90% favourable for launch. The first stage booster is planned to return to Cape Canaveral and land in Landing Zone 1.
This flight will deliver a crew of four to the ISS in a planned 14 day mission. The Crew Dragon spacecraft (C212 Freedom) will be making its third flight and Falcon 9 booster B1080 its fifth flight after a turnaround of 88 days since its last outing . Mission commander is Michael López-Alegría, veteran of five flights to the ISS on Space Shuttle, Soyuz, and Axiom Crew Dragon missions, during which he spent 275 days in space and conducted 10 space walks. López-Alegría is now Director of Business Development for Axiom Space, and will fulfill the NASA requirement that missions to the ISS have a “professional astronaut” as commander. The other three crew members are from Italy, Sweden, and the Turkey, and all will be making their first orbital space flights (Pilot Walter Villadei earlier flew on a Virgin Galactic hop into “space” below the Kármán line.)
Here is a pre-flight preview from Everyday Astronaut.
