Saudi Arabia also paid to fly two of its citizens: Barnawi and Ali AlQarni, a fighter pilot in the Royal Saudi Air Force. One of the three paying customers joining Whitson was John Shoffner, an American who made his fortune in the international telecom business and founded the hardware company Dura-Line Corp. The SpaceX Crew Dragon capsule carrying Axiom Mission 2's four-person crew splashed down off the coast of Panama City, Florida, at 11:04 p.m. “I’m really excited about returning to space, but even more excited about welcoming three new astronauts,” Whitson said in a May 21 statement from the Crew Dragon spacecraft after launch. The AX-2 mission is one in a lineup of commercial missions designed to spur private sector participation in spaceflight - particularly in low-Earth orbit, where the International Space Station orbits.įormer NASA astronaut Peggy Whitson, 63, led the AX-2 crew. Whitson, now an Axiom Space employee, also became the first woman to command a private spaceflight. This mission was also a milestone in the history of spaceflight as stem cell researcher Rayyanah Barnawi became the first woman from Saudi Arabia to travel to space.

AX-2 was put together by the Houston-based company Axiom Space and marked the second all-private mission to the orbiting outpost, meaning solely commercial companies, rather than a government agency, have been leading the mission. This mission, dubbed Axiom Mission 2, or AX-2, launched from Florida on May 21. After a fiery reentry, the Crew Dragon and passengers made a safe splashdown off the coast of Panama City, Florida, in the Gulf of Mexico at 11:04 p.m. The Crew Dragon spacecraft departed the space station Tuesday morning and the crew spent nearly 12 hours in orbit as the capsule maneuvered back toward Earth. A SpaceX capsule carrying a decorated former NASA astronaut and three paying customers returned home from the International Space Station Tuesday, concluding a historic weeklong mission for the crew.

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