As scheduled, on Tuesday, February 6, the four astronauts of the private Ax-3 mission will no longer leave the International Space Station in their SpaceX Dragon capsule.

It was planned for Ax-3’s Crew Dragon “Freedom” to undock from the orbiting lab on Saturday, February 3, at 6:05 a.m. EST (1105 GMT). That plan, as well as potential departures on Monday, February 5, or Tuesday, February 6, were canceled due to bad weather in Freedom’s splashdown zone, the ocean off the coast of Florida. To consider a new departure date, mission team members will convene for a weather review on Tuesday at 12 p.m. EST (1700 GMT).

Following successful attempts in April 2022 and May 2023, Axiom Space, a Houston-based corporation, is organizing its third crewed mission to the International Space Station (ISS), designated as Ax-3.

On January 18, four crew members of Ax-3 were sent into orbit by a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket from NASA’s Kennedy Space Center. These are mission specialist Alper Gezeravcı, the first astronaut from Turkey; pilot Walter Villadei, a colonel in the Italian Air Force; mission specialist Marcus Wandt, a reserve astronaut with the European Space Agency; and Ax-3 commander Michael López-Alegría, a former NASA astronaut and chief astronaut of Axiom Space.

Following successful attempts in April 2022 and May 2023, Axiom Space, a Houston-based corporation, is organizing its third crewed mission to the International Space Station (ISS), designated as Ax-3.

On January 18, four crew members of Ax-3 were sent into orbit by a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket from NASA’s Kennedy Space Center. These are mission specialist Alper Gezeravcı, the first astronaut from Turkey; pilot Walter Villadei, a colonel in the Italian Air Force; mission specialist Marcus Wandt, a reserve astronaut with the European Space Agency; and Ax-3 commander Michael López-Alegría, a former NASA astronaut and chief astronaut of Axiom Space.

SpaceX is preparing for another astronaut journey, called Crew-8 for NASA, which will transport four spaceflyers to the International Space Station (ISS) for a nearly six-month stay, while Ax-3 is coming to a conclusion. As of right now, Crew-8 is scheduled to launch on February 22.