Four Private Ax-1 Astronauts Enter Space Station, Meet Expedition 67 Crew
Axiom Mission 1 (Ax-1) astronauts Michael Lopez-Alegria, Larry Connor, Eytan Stibbe, and Mark Pathy are now aboard the International Space Station following Crew Dragon’s hatch opening at 10:13 a.m. EDT, Saturday, April 9. It is the first mission with an entirely private crew to arrive at the orbiting laboratory.
After a journey of almost 21 hours, Axiom Mission 1 (Ax-1) astronauts Michael Lopez-Alegria, Larry Connor, Eytan Stibbe, and Mark Pathy arrived at the International Space Station at 8:29 a.m. EDT Saturday, April 9. Crew Dragon Endeavour docked to the orbital complex while the spacecraft were flying about 260 miles above the central Atlantic Ocean.
The 11-person crew aboard the station comprises of (bottom row from left) Expedition 67 Flight Engineers Denis Matveev, Kayla Barron, Oleg Artemyev, and station Commander Tom Marshburn; (center row from left) Axiom Mission 1 astronauts Mark Pathy, Eytan Stibbe, Larry Connor, and Michael Lopez-Alegria; (top row from left) Expedition 67 Flight Engineers Sergey Korsakov, Raja Chari, and Matthias Maurer. Credit: NASA
Dragon Endeavour’s docking was delayed approximately 45 minutes as the space station teams, including mission controllers at 
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 Pathy, and Eytan Stibbe docked to the zenith port of the Harmony module of the International Space Station on April 9, 2022, following a launch on April 8 on the SpaceX Crew Dragon Endeavour spacecraft aboard a Falcon 9 rocket. The four crew members will conduct an eight-day mission living and working aboard the…
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