On Sunday, May 21st, SpaceX launched the second mission in their partnership with Axiom Space from Historic Launch Complex 39A at the Kennedy Space Center in Florida.

This mission featured a few milestones for SpaceX: This was their tenth mission carrying crew with Dragon, as well as the first time that SpaceX attempted to perform a Return to Launch Site (RTLS) with Dragon 2.

As one might expect with SpaceX’s landing streak, it went flawlessly.

The crew consists of four astronauts: two Americans and two Saudis. Their names and roles are as follows:

Peggy Whitson, Ax-2 Commander (USA). The only astronaut on the mission with spaceflight experience, she previously was a part of three different ISS missions, totaling 665 days in space across Expeditions 5, 16, and 50/51/52. Among other achievements in her career, she was also the first female commander of the ISS, first woman to do that twice, and she holds the record for most time spent in space for both any woman or any American astronaut.

John Shoffner (USA) is serving as the mission’s pilot. According to his biography on Axiom’s website, he has over 8500 hours in the pilot’s seat for aircraft, accumulated since the age of 17; over 3000 sky dives and base jumps; and a lifetime athlete. During Ax-2, he “will work to bring awareness to the new era of space access through scientific research, technology demonstrations, and various outreach and educational events aimed at empowering educators and inspiring students to follow their core interests.”

Ali Alqarni is one of two Mission Specialists onboard Ax-2, hailing from Saudi Arabia. He is the second Saudi man to ever travel to orbit, following Sultan Salman bin Abdulaziz’s 1985 trip to space onboard the Space Shuttle. Similar to Abdulaziz, he has served in the Saudi Air Force, accumulating over 2800 flight hours, and is one of the first Saudis to travel to the International Space Station.

The final astronaut onboard Ax-2 is the first Saudi woman in space: Rayyanah Barnawi, the second Mission Specialist onboard. On Earth, she works as a “biomedical researcher with nearly a decade of experience in cancer stem-cell research,” according to Axiom’s website. During this mission, she’ll be focusing her research on stem cell & breast cancer.

After around a 15-hour period of drifting closer to the International Space Station, Ax-2 docked with Node 2’s Zenith port at 8:12 AM CDT. The crew opened the hatch a little over an hour later, and conducted the customary welcome ceremony just after 10 AM in Houston.

Ax-2 should be spending around 10 days docked to Station, although we have seen that it can be extended as in the case of Ax-1, which was extended nearly a week due to poor weather in both the Gulf of Mexico and Atlantic recovery zones.

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