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Private mission with Saudi astronauts docks with ISS

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The rocket took off from Florida yesterday, and the trip lasted about 16 hours.

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Free Malaysia Today
The Ax-2 is the second fully private mission to visit the Space Station. (AP pic)

WASHINGTON:
A SpaceX capsule carrying two Saudi astronauts docked with the International Space Station today, as part of a private mission chartered by Axiom Space.

Rayyanah Barnawi, a scientist who became the first Saudi woman to go into space, and Ali Al-Qarni, a trained fighter pilot, are the first two people from their country to go to the orbital outpost.

“It was a lovely ride,” said mission commander Peggy Whitson, a former Nasa astronaut who made the voyage three times in the past, adding: “It was the softest docking I’ve ever felt.”

The fourth crew member is American businessman John Shoffner.

About two hours after docking, the capsule’s hatch will be opened to allow the four to enter the ISS, where they will join the seven astronauts already on board (three Russians, three Americans, and an Emirati).

The SpaceX rocket took off from Florida yesterday, and the trip to the ISS, which flies around 400km above the Earth, lasted about 16 hours.

This mission, named Ax-2, is the second fully private mission to visit the Space Station, following a first in April 2022.

The members of Ax-2 will stay for about ten days and carry out about 20 experiments.

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