American aviation company SpaceX’s Crew Dragon manned spacecraft reached the International Space Station (ISS) with four crew members participating in the Axiom Space company’s Ax-3 tourist mission. They will stay in the orbital station for two weeks and then return to earth.

The Crew Dragon spacecraft with the crew embarked on a 36-hour journey to the ISS on Thursday, January 18. The Falcon 9 launch vehicle was used to launch it into space. Crew Dragon’s docking with the ISS Harmony module took place on January 20. This is Axiom Space’s third commercial mission. The company has delivered nine tourists to the ISS since 2022.

The Crew Dragon crew as part of the Ax-3 mission included the command of former NASA astronaut Michael Lopez-Alegria, pilot Walter Villadei from the Italian Air Force, as well as specialists Marcus Wandt from Sweden and Alper Gezeravci, the first pilot. Astronaut in Turkish history.

After arriving at the orbital station, the ISS crew became truly international. At the ISS, participants of the Ax-3 mission were welcomed by NASA astronauts Jasmine Moghbeli and Loral O’Hara, Dane Andreas Mogensen, Japanese Satoshi Furukawa, as well as cosmonauts Oleg Kononenko and Mykola Chub.

“This is an incredibly exciting time for human spaceflight; a third dedicated mission allows many more countries to participate in the scientific research and technology development we conduct in the orbiting laboratory.”– said Andreas Mogensen.