The SpaceX Dragon crew capsule is now atop a Falcon9 booster and was rolled out and put into position on Tuesday. The Ax-3 crew performed a dry dress rehearsal out on launch pad 39A at the Kennedy Space Center.
Now, it’s down to a series of checks and tests before the first all-European commercial crew heads skyward to the International Space Station.
“It makes it much easier for foreign entities to be able to get their crew members into orbit and we are certainly seeing that with this launch here,” said Dr. Don Platt of Florida Tech.
Ax-3 is commanded by a duel American-Spanish citizen who is the head astronaut at Axiom and a former NASA astronaut. The crew will represent the Italian, and Swedish space agencies along with the very first Turkish astronaut.
While this mission advances the knowledge and experience of the space agencies who have astronauts on Ax-3, it’s also part of Axiom’s learning process in its plan for the first private space station.
“All of the people in the Axiom organization get exposed to this process, and get experience with it. And what better way than having some seasoned veterans like SpaceX and NASA to help them through the process and learn now while they can fly to the international space station,” explained Platt.
In a critical step in building the first commercial space station, Axiom says they plan to launch the first module of their space station in 2026 to be attached to the ISS.
Axiom will hold a pre-launch media briefing Tuesday at 8 p.m. ahead of Wednesday’s launch at 5:11 p.m.
The article originally appeared on WESH.