On Sunday, Axiom Space is set to launch its second private mission to the ISS, with liftoff set for 21:37 GMT.
"It's obviously a very, very exciting day. We worked a long, long time in collaboration with our partners at SpaceX and NASA to get to this point. The crew has been working very hard to get trained and they're certainly ready to go," Derek Hassmann, Axiom Space chief of mission integration and operations, said, as quoted by media.
The Axiom-2 mission will send a four-person crew to the International Space Station in SpaceX's Crew Dragon spacecraft, which will be launched with a Falcon 9 rocket from the Kennedy Space Center launch pad in Florida.
Arriving at the station, the astronauts will spend 10 days on it, during which time they will work alongside the permanent ISS crew. According to the company, former NASA astronaut and first female ISS commander Peggy Whitson will serve as commander of the spacecraft, while entrepreneur John Schoffner will be the pilot on the mission.
The crew will also include two astronauts from Saudi Arabia, Rayyanah Barnawi and Ali Alqarni. After the mission, Barnawi will become the first woman from Saudi Arabia to travel to space.
The first Axiom-1 commercial astronaut mission took place in April 2022. It was originally scheduled to last 10 days, but due to bad weather at the landing site off the coast of Florida, the four astronauts stayed in space for a week longer.
Axiom Space is a privately held American space exploration company that aims to make space travel accessible to everyone. Based in Houston, Texas, the company was founded in 2016 by Michael Suffredini, who previously served as the manager of NASA's International Space Station Program. Axiom Space is focused on creating the first commercial space station, which will be attached to the ISS.