Assuming no major setbacks, we will see the second private astronaut mission to the International Space Station in May 2023. As part of the Ax-2 mission, which Houston-based Axiom Space will launch on May 8, four people will travel to the orbiting laboratory in a SpaceX Dragon capsule called Freedom.

The launch is scheduled for 22:43 ET (0:243 pm GMT on 9 May) with a Falcon 9 rocket launching from NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida. This will be Freedom’s second spaceflight to launch the SpaceX Crew-4 astronaut mission to the ISS on behalf of NASA, and the first for the first stage of this Falcon 9 rocket.

After launch, approximately 37 hours later, at approximately 11:40 PM ET (15:40 GMT) on May 10, Svoboda and its four passengers are scheduled to dock with the ISS.

“This crew will dock with the International Space Station in 10 days,” NASA’s ISS program manager Joel Montalbano said at today’s Ax-2 press conference. “They will run more than 20 research experiments, which will result in about 130 national laboratory hours.”

The Ax-2 will launch 13 months after the Ax-1 and will deliver a completely dedicated team of astronauts to the ISS for its maiden flight. Like the Ax-1, the Ax-2 will be led by former NASA Axiom Space astronaut Peggy Whitson, who has spent 665 days in space. As for the other passengers, the Ax-2 will make its own history with two Saudi Arabian astronauts, Rayyana Barnawi and Ali Al-Qarni. Al-Qarni and Barnawi will be the first Saudis to visit the ISS, and Barnawi will make history as the first Saudi woman in space.