“I am very honored and happy to be representing all the dreams and all the hopes of all the people in Saudi Arabia and all the women back home,” Barnawi told reporters at a May 16 news conference.ĭuring the mission, Barnawi led stem cell research suited for the microgravity environment aboard the space station. Saudi Arabia also paid to fly two of its citizens: Barnawi and Ali AlQarni, a fighter pilot in the Royal Saudi Air Force. One of the three paying customers joining Whitson was John Shoffner, an American who made his fortune in the international telecom business and founded the hardware company Dura-Line Corp. The SpaceX Crew Dragon capsule carrying Axiom Mission 2's four-person crew splashed down off the coast of Panama City, Florida, at 11:04 p.m. “I’m really excited about returning to space, but even more excited about welcoming three new astronauts,” Whitson said in a May 21 statement from the Crew Dragon spacecraft after launch. ![]() The AX-2 mission is one in a lineup of commercial missions designed to spur private sector participation in spaceflight - particularly in low-Earth orbit, where the International Space Station orbits.įormer NASA astronaut Peggy Whitson, 63, led the AX-2 crew. Whitson, now an Axiom Space employee, also became the first woman to command a private spaceflight. This mission was also a milestone in the history of spaceflight as stem cell researcher Rayyanah Barnawi became the first woman from Saudi Arabia to travel to space. AX-2 was put together by the Houston-based company Axiom Space and marked the second all-private mission to the orbiting outpost, meaning solely commercial companies, rather than a government agency, have been leading the mission. This mission, dubbed Axiom Mission 2, or AX-2, launched from Florida on May 21. After a fiery reentry, the Crew Dragon and passengers made a safe splashdown off the coast of Panama City, Florida, in the Gulf of Mexico at 11:04 p.m. The Crew Dragon spacecraft departed the space station Tuesday morning and the crew spent nearly 12 hours in orbit as the capsule maneuvered back toward Earth. Northrop Grumman so far has notannounced where it would locate its CEV workforce should it win thecompetition.īrooks McKinney, a spokesman forNorthrop Grumman Integrated Systems in El Segundo, Calif., said that thecompany has provided its workforce plan to NASA as part of it CEV proposal butwould not be discussing job locations publicly until summer.A SpaceX capsule carrying a decorated former NASA astronaut and three paying customers returned home from the International Space Station Tuesday, concluding a historic weeklong mission for the crew. Karas declined to quantify thedollar value of the Texas incentive package, but said they were significant andwould help pay for worker training, infrastructure and facility improvements neededfor the CEV program. Texas, like Florida, has offeredfinancial incentives to lure the CEV jobs to the state. ![]() A Lockheed win on CEV would mean 400 to 500 new jobs for Florida,Karas said in an interview.Ībout 300 to 400 jobs also would becreated at Lockheed Martin Space Systems' Denver base of operations if thecompany wins the CEV competition, Karas said. Lockheed Martin announcedin late February that it would perform final assembly and checkout of the CEVin Florida, using facilities a Kennedy Space Center that would be improved withthe aid of statefunding. Karas said the Lockheed jobs would bespread between the center itself and contractor facilities in the immediatevicinity. NASA's Johnson Space Center inHouston is managing the CEV program. "We are following the vein that weare going to do our CEV program with NASA side by side at the human spaceflight centers and help the transition from shuttle and station to CEV," Karassaid in an interview.
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