"For the galley and the potty, both essential functions, obviously, they've got a tremendous amount of training," Hassmann said. They will be free to visit the Russian segment at the invitation of the cosmonauts and they are trained to operate basic equipment without supervision. One such student experiment: building a kite and comparing how one flies aboard the station in the absence of gravity with how student-built kites fly on Earth.ĭuring the Ax-2 crew's stay aboard the station, the only off-limits area for the rooky visitors is the Quest airlock where delicate spacewalk hardware is housed. It's going to be a huge opportunity to compare the results that they had on the ground with the one we are going to have aboard the ISS." They have a whole series of post-flight events planned as well."īarnawi said "we are here as STEM educators for the kids to be (attracted) to math and science, technology, to know that they can do more."Īdded Alqarni: "We're going to be doing three education and awareness experiments with the kids and it's going to be a live event, which is going to be amazing for them. And that was one of the reasons, just the timing of the school year, that we're very interested in getting this flight done in May. "One of the focuses of many of these events is interacting with school-aged children in Saudi Arabia. The Ax-2 Falcon 9 (foreground) stands atop historic pad 39A at the Kennedy Space Center. "During the time they're docked to ISS, there is a whole series of media events scheduled. "This is a huge, huge event in Saudi Arabia," said Derek Hassmann, Axiom chief of mission integration and operations. Equally important, if not more so: public outreach. Whenever they arrive, they'll be welcomed aboard the station by Expedition 69 commander Sergey Prokopyev and his two Soyuz MS-23 crewmates, Dmitri Petelin and NASA astronaut Frank Rubio, along with NASA Crew 6 fliers Steve Bowen, Woody Hoburg, UAE astronaut Sultan Alneyadi and cosmonaut Andrey Fedyaev.ĭuring an eight-day stay, Whitson, Shoffner, Alqarni and Barnawi plan to carry out 20 research projects, 14 of them developed by Saudi scientists, that range from human physiology and cell biology to technology development. For a day-late launch on Monday, docking would be expected around 1:30 a.m. "And it was a real challenge for the team to find this two-day window for the (Ax-2) mission."Īssuming an on-time launch Sunday, Whitson and Shoffner will monitor an automated rendezvous with the space station, catching up and moving in for docking at the Harmony module's space-facing port at 9:24 a.m. "The schedule is really tight with all the missions launching from different parts of the world," said Ken Bowersox, director of space operations at NASA. If the weather or some other issue keeps them on the ground past Monday, the flight could slip into the late summer-fall timeframe because of other already-planned launches, multiple spacewalks and the first piloted flight of Boeing's Starliner capsule in July. The Ax-2 crew only has two shots at getting off in May. Whitson, left, briefs her crewmates on the intricacies of living and working in space.īut as with many afternoon launches this time of year, the weather could be a factor with only a 60 percent chance of favorable conditions Sunday, falling to just 20 percent "go" on Monday due to expected thunderstorms. It will be the tenth piloted flight of a SpaceX Crew Dragon, the California rocket builder's third non-government mission and the second chartered by Axiom Space. EST Sunday with a backup launch opportunity at 5:14 p.m. Liftoff atop a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket is planned for 5:37 p.m. "This is a great opportunity for me to represent the country, to represent their dreams. "I'm very happy and honored to be here today representing the government of Saudi Arabia and the Saudi Space Commission as the first Saudi woman astronaut going to the International Space Station. "Research has been my passion in life," she said at a pre-launch news conference. They will be the first Saudis to visit the space station, and Barnawi will become the first Saudi woman to fly in space. In any case, Alqarni and Barnawi will be the second and third Saudis to fly in space after Sultan Salman Al-Saud flew aboard the space shuttle Discovery in 1985. But seats are thought to cost more than $50 million each. Neither SpaceX nor Axiom will say how much the flight cost or how much Shoffner and the Saudi government chipped in for Alqarni and Barnawi. The Ax-2 crew (left to right): Ali Alqarni, Rayyanah Barnawi, commander Peggy Whitson and pilot John Shoffner. It is the second "private astronaut mission," or PAM, to the International Space Station chartered by Axiom and sanctioned by NASA, which is trying to encourage private-sector development of low-Earth orbit.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |