Axiom-3 Launches From Kennedy Space Center

Launch of SpaceX Falcon 9 with four astronauts aboard on the Axiom-3 Mission.
Photo: Charles Boyer

Minutes before a warm front brought heavy showers to Kennedy Space Center, SpaceX launched the Axiom 3 mission on a 16 day round trip to the ISS. Four Axiom Space astronauts rode the chartered Space-X Crew Dragon module to orbit on top of a Falcon 9 booster at 4:49 PM EST this evening. The all-European crew is expected to dock at ISS in two days’ time and stay aboard the station until February 3, 2024.

SpaceX Delays Axiom-3 Launch

Earlier today, SpaceX announced that they are delaying their planned launch of Falcon 9 carrying four astronauts to orbit aboard a Crew Dragon to the International Space Station for “teams to complete pre-launch checkouts and data analysis on the vehicle.” 

The mission on behalf of Axiom Space is dubbed Axiom-3 and will now launch NET on Thursday, January 18, 2024, at 4:49 PM EST.

Ax-3 Crewed Rocket Launch and Sonic Boom Expected Tomorrow

Ax-3 on the pad
(Image credit: Axiom Space)

Axiom Space’s third commercial astronaut mission, Ax-3, is set to be a historic event as the first all-European commercial astronaut mission to the International Space Station (ISS). The mission underscores a new era in space travel, where access to low-Earth orbit (LEO) is becoming increasingly commercialized and international.

The Best Places To View a Crewed Rocket Launch

Hundreds of thousands of tourists visit Florida’s Space Coast every year to view a rocket launch from Kennedy Space Center or Cape Canaveral Space Force Station.

While the area is accommodating and friendly to tourists, those same tourists often ask the same question of the locals: “Where is the best places to view a rocket launch?” The answer to “where is the best place to view a launch?” is best prefaced with “it depends.”

Titusville-Based Space Initiatives Selected By NASA To Study Potential Interstellar Mission

Titusville-Based Space Initiatives Selected By NASA To Study Potential Interstellar Mission

Shining brightly in this Hubble image is our closest stellar neighbor: Proxima Centauri. Although it looks bright through the eye of Hubble, as you might expect from the nearest star to the Solar System, Proxima Centauri is not visible to the naked eye. Space Initiatives, Inc. in Titusville plans to study the possibility of a mission to this star in this century.
Photo: Creative Commons

It sounds like something out of a science-fiction movie: a space mission to visit another star to find out if life or the potential of it exists there.

NASA Unveils the X-59 Supersonic Test Aircraft

NASA unveiled America’s new X-59 aircraft today at LMs Skunk Works facility in Palmdale, California. The experimental aircraft is designed as an experimental test-bed for “quiet supersonic” air travel and it is hoped that it will serve as a serious starting point for commercial aircraft that can travel faster than the speed of sound, this time in a quieter, more efficient manner than previous airplanes like the Concorde.