SpaceX is targeting Friday, April 8 for Falcon 9’s launch of Axiom Space’s Ax-1 mission to the International Space Station from historic Launch Complex 39A (LC-39A) at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida. The instantaneous launch window opens at 11:17 a.m. ET, 15:17 UTC, with a backup opportunity available on Saturday, April 9 at 10:54 a.m. ET, 14:54 UTC.
This will be the fifth flight for this Falcon 9 first stage booster, which previously supported launch of GPS III Space Vehicle 04, GPS III Space Vehicle 05, Inspiration4, and one Starlink mission. Following stage separation, Falcon 9’s first stage will land on the A Shortfall of Gravitas droneship stationed in the Atlantic Ocean. The Dragon spacecraft supporting this mission previously flew the Demo-2 and Crew-2 missions.
Axiom Space's Ax-1 mission is the first all-private human spaceflight mission to the International Space Station. The Ax-1 crew will participate in educational outreach and conduct innovative research experiments while on the orbiting laboratory.
The webcast for the Ax-1 mission will go live approximately three hours before liftoff and will remain live until roughly fifteen minutes post launch. Live mission coverage will resume about two hours prior to docking.
