![The SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket carrying four Axiom Mission 3 astronauts aboard the Dragon Freedom spacecraft launches from the Kennedy Space Center. Credit: NASA/Chris Swanson](https://blogs.nasa.gov/spacestation/wp-content/uploads/sites/240/2024/01/blog_ax3_launch_0118b.jpg)
The NASA+ streaming service, NASA Television, the NASA app, and the agency’s website are providing live coverage for the arrival of the Axiom Mission 3 (Ax-3) to the International Space Station. Ax-3 astronauts Michael López-Alegría, Walter Villadei, Marcus Wandt and Alper Gezeravci are scheduled to dock as early as 5:40 a.m. EST Saturday, Jan 20, to the space-facing port of the station’s Harmony module.
The NASA, Axiom Space, and SpaceX teams are now conducting integrated operations which begins during the spacecraft’s approach to the International Space Station. NASA maintains mission responsibility during integrated operations, which continues during the crew’s stay aboard the orbiting laboratory conducting science, education, and commercial activities, and concludes once Dragon exits the area of the space station.
When Axiom Space Mission 3 arrives to the International Space Station, it will be the third mission with an entirely private crew to visit the orbiting laboratory.
The welcome ceremony is expected to start shortly after the Dragon’s hatch opens at approximately 7:20 a.m. Live mission coverage will end with the conclusion of the ceremony.
The third all private astronaut mission lifted off at 4:49 p.m. EST Thursday, Jan. 18, on a Falcon 9 rocket from NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida.
Learn more about station activities by following the space station blog, @space_station and @ISS_Research on X, as well as the ISS Facebook and ISS Instagram accounts.
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