Four special Ax-1 astronauts enter the space station and meet the crew of Expedition 67

Axiom Mission 1 (Ax-1) astronauts Michael Lopez-Alegria, Larry Connor, Eitan Stipe and Mark Bathy are now aboard the International Space Station after the Crew Dragon hatch opens at 10:13 a.m. EDT, Saturday, April 9. The first mission with a completely private crew to reach the orbiting laboratory.

After a nearly 21-hour flight, Axiom Mission 1 (Ax-1) astronauts Michael Lopez-Alegria, Larry Connor, Eitan Stipe and Mark Bathy arrived at the International Space Station at 8:29 a.m. EDT on Saturday, April 9. Crew Dragon docked Endeavor in the orbital complex while the spacecraft was flying about 260 miles over the mid-Atlantic Ocean.

The 11-man crew aboard the station consisted of (bottom row left), Flight 67 engineers Denis Matveyev, Kayla Baron, Oleg Artemyev, and station commander Tom Marshburne; (middle row from left) Axiom 1 mission astronauts, Mark Bathy, Eitan Stipe, Larry Connor, and Michael Lopez Allegria; (Top left row) Expedition 67 Flight Engineers Sergei Korsakov, Raja Chari and Matthias Maurer. credit: NASA

Docking of the Dragon Endeavor was delayed by approximately 45 minutes with space station teams, including mission controllers at[{” attribute=””>NASA and SpaceX, worked to troubleshoot an issue preventing the crew members on station from receiving views from Dragon’s center line camera of the Harmony’s modules docking port. Mission teams worked to route video using a SpaceX ground station to the crew on the space station allowing Dragon to proceed with docking.

The Moon is pictured (bottom left) as the SpaceX Dragon Endeavour approaches the station with four Axiom Mission 1 astronauts. Credit: NASA TV

Following Dragon’s link up to the Harmony module, NASA astronaut and station commander Tom Marshburn pressurized the space in between the Dragon and station hatches and performed a leak check before opening the hatches to welcome the private astronaut crew.

Axiom Mission 1 astronauts Michael Lopez Algeria, Larry Connor, Mark Bathy and Eitan Stipe docked at the apex port of the International Space Station’s Harmony module on April 9, 2022, following its April 8 launch aboard the SpaceX Crew Dragon Endeavor spacecraft aboard a rocket. Falcon 9. The four crew members will conduct an eight-day mission living and working aboard the Microgravity Laboratory before de-docking to return to Earth on April xx. This is Axiom Space’s first spaceflight and the first entirely private astronaut mission to the International Space Station. credit: NASA

The Axiom crew joins the crew of Expedition 67, including NASA astronauts Marshburn, Raja Chari and Kayla Baron, ESA astronaut Matthias Maurer, and ESA astronauts Oleg Artemyev, Sergey Korskov and Denis Matveev.

A SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket carrying the company’s Crew Dragon spacecraft on the Ax-1 mission is launched to the space station. Credit: SpaceX

When the Axiom Space Mission 1 (X-1) arrived at the International Space Station, it was the first fully private crewed mission to reach the orbiting laboratory. It marks the culmination of NASA’s efforts to promote a commercial market in low Earth orbit and the beginning of a new era of space exploration that enables more people to fly on more types of missions.

The crew of the Ax-1 will spend more than a week aboard the laboratory that circles the globe conducting scientific, educational and commercial activities.

SpaceX Axiom Ax-1 mission launch photo gallery