The second private astronaut mission to the International Space Station (ISS) continues to begin this weekend. NASA, SpaceX and Houston-based Axiom Space conducted a Readiness to Flight Review (FRR) today (May 15) for the Ax-2 mission, which plans to launch four humans to the International Space Station on Sunday afternoon, May 21.

“At the end of this review, the entire team did a ‘go to’ survey,” Ken Bowersox, deputy director of NASA’s Space Operations Administration, said at a post-FRR press conference this afternoon.

If all goes according to plan, the Ax-2 will launch on a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket from NASA’s Kennedy Space Center (KSC) in Florida at 5:37 PM ET (9:37 p.m. GMT) on Sunday. The Ax-2 astronauts will travel to the orbiting lab on a SpaceX Dragon capsule and arrive around 9:30 ET (1:30 p.m. GMT) on Monday, May 21.

Team members announced today that the mission will spend eight days docking with the ISS. This is a minor change from the previous plan, which required a 10-day stay on the ISS.

If the Ax-2 doesn’t get off the ground on Sunday, he’ll have another chance on Monday, May 22. However, if the mission misses this backup opportunity, it will have to wait a while to reach space: NASA and SpaceX will take action to prepare for the launch of CRS-28, SpaceX’s 28th scheduled robotic cargo mission. . It leaves KSK on June 3rd.

“And then, then, Axiom, NASA and SpaceX will come together and look at the missions we have this summer and look for the next best opportunity,” said Joel Montalbano, NASA’s International Space Station program manager at today’s meeting. These other flights, such as Boeing’s Crew Flight Test (currently scheduled for July 21) and SpaceX’s Crew-7 mission, as well as crewed flights to the ISS, “other missions using field facilities at Kennedy Space Center,” telecon Montalbano said. said that.

As the name suggests, the Ax-2 will be the second crewed flight to the ISS by Axiom Space using SpaceX equipment. The first, Ax-1, sent four people to the orbiting lab over two weeks in April 2022.

The Ax-2 is also innovative of its kind. Two of the mission’s crew members, Rayana Barnawi and Ali Al-Qarni, will be the first Saudis to visit the ISS. Barnawi will be the first woman from Saudi Arabia to go into space.

Other team members include investor and client John Shoffner, and former NASA astronaut Peggy Whitson, who currently works for Axiom and will lead the mission. In total, Whitson spent 665 days outside of Earth—more than any American or any other woman. Currently, NASA requires that all private astronaut flights to the ISS be conducted under the guidance of the agency’s legacy spaceflight. The Ax-1 was piloted by Michael Lopez-Alegría, who completed four space flights while working for NASA.