Axiom Mission 1 Launches to the Space Station (Official NASA Stream)

foreign [Music] your screens it's blue skies over kennedy space center pad 39a weather's looking good both in the local area as well as when we head northeast towards the space station the ascent trajectory looks good so t minus one hour and two minutes all systems are good all right well you're looking at a live view of the falcon 9 rocket and dragon spacecraft that is in the final stages of preparation to launch the world's first all-private astronaut mission the international space station in just over one hour from now today's launch marks the next step in evolution of the human space flight story this is the first of a number of planned private astronaut missions or pams by axiom space to the international space station and it represents the culmination of years of hard work between both government and private entities to open up the doors to low earth orbit my name is john rackham and i am the crew systems deputy manager at axiom space based out of houston texas for awareness we are cycling orbit tank isolation valves to equalize low flow pressure all right just some back and forth there between the crew and the corps my name is kate tyson i'm the quality systems engineering manager here at spacex headquarters in hawthorne california with our coverage now expanding to nasa television i'd like to welcome friend from nasa dan hewitt uh coming to us from johnson space center over at houston texas hey dan hey kate great to see you and the johns we're excited to join and get this milestone mission off the ground liftoff time is still holding uh let's see for 11 17 a.m eastern time and currently tracking no issues with falcon 9 or dragon the range remains green and as you can see there with that shot the weather is definitely cooperating that's a beautiful day for launch what a gorgeous shot now over the last three hours axiom astronauts michael lopez alegria larry connor mark pathy and eton stibba donned their spacex suits in our new suit-up room uh and were then transported to the pad where our crew entered the spacex dragon dragon spacecraft that you see there live on your screen right and since arriving at the spacecraft our crews were helped by the closeout engineers or advanced team to get into their seats attach their suits to special umbilicals that provide breathing air and a communication link to dragon systems at that point they conducted successful leak checks and communication checks with the core here in hawthorne which is the person dedicated to speaking directly to the crew throughout the mission the closeout team then sealed the hatch which also gets its own leak check unfortunately that leak check didn't pass the first time so we opened it back up wiped it down and performed that link check again uh and that second one was good so that league check is closed excuse me that side hatch is now closed uh moments from now the closeout team will depart the pad while weather operators kick off their final check on wind speeds at the pad before the final go no go for launch but before we get to that final go no go the spacex team will do an internal poll making sure conditions are ready with falcon 9 dragon the crew the range and the weather let's pause now and watch with that watch the closeout crew as they've finalized their preparations there on the pad as you can see the crew there on the right hand side of your screen continuing to wait another 57 minutes until we lift off from pad 39a which you can see there on the left hand side of your screen we can confirm that the closeout team has departed uh the the access arm there so that's good news now as the countdown continues let's take a moment to get reacquainted with our crew today so the ax1 mission is commanded by retired nasa astronaut michael lopez alegria a spanish american who was born in madrid spain and is also called mission viejo california as well as boston massachusetts home michael is a u.s navy captain and has flown three times aboard the space shuttle and once aboard soyuz so he has quite a bit of flight pedigree he has conducted 10 spacewalks in his career accumulating 67 hours and 40 minutes total in the vacuum of space both of these landmarks are nasa records in 2021 he was inducted into the nas into the astronaut hall of fame you might hear us call him mla a few times around here so if you like acronyms uh here's a new one for you the pilot for ax1 is larry connor from dayton ohio larry is an entrepreneur non-profit activist investor he's won excuse me he's won aerobatic at flying competitions and has summited both mount kilimanjaro and mount rainier through ax1 he'll become the first private pilot to reach the iss he'll also become the first human to reach both section six of four decimal 100 when ready report go for launch that's in workspace [Applause] all right so just some uh back and forth with spacex core arthur burial and the crew um continuing to work through our procedures um ultimately next check will be to make sure that the crew inside dragon endeavor are go for launch back to our pilot larry connor as i said he will also become the first human to reach both the deepest ocean depths and enter the bounds of outer space within one year that's that's just crazy to me larry has been actively involved with the mayo clinic and the cleveland clinic for many years helping to understand the effects of aging this mission will add a new dimension all right so that is fantastic news um that's basically four thumbs up inside uh crew dragon right now um yeah so really good news there yeah so continuing out our crew moving on to mission specialist one eitan stiva will become the second israeli ever to fly to space in many ways today's mission is a return to flight for the nation of israel after the colombia tragedy in 2003. eitan served for more than four decades as a fighter pilot in the israeli air force where he received the distinguished aviator medal and today he is an impact investor and philanthropist in collaboration with the ramon foundation the israel space agency and the ministry of innovation science and technology and the ministry of education steeple will fly to the iss under the rakia banner and the maxim there is no dream beyond reach during his time on the iss stable will facilitate scientific experiments educational outreach and one of my personal favorites artistic activities mark pathey is an entrepreneur investor and philanthropist as well as mission specialist number two on this ax-1 mission pathy is currently the chief executive officer and chairman of montreal-based maverick a privately owned investment and financing company he founded that focuses on innovation and social impact as a strong believer in the importance of philanthropy pathy is a member of the boards and executive committees of the montreal children's hospital foundation dons larue and the pathy family foundation through the ax1 mission pathy will become canada's second private private astronaut in the 12th canadian to go to space all right well you've seen the vehicle you've met the crew you've heard some good calls on our way to launch and we're just within the hour so let's send you over now to nasa's johnson space center where dan hewitt is following a launch prep from mission control in houston dan over to you hey thanks john and the team behind me flying the space station the crew on board they're ready to get this first private astronaut mission off the ground back in 2019 nasa took steps to open the station up for business issuing a directive to enable new commercial activity on board including private astronaut missions and all of this is done with the goal of building a robust economy in low earth orbit now why does nasa want to do that well we're very aware that there is untapped potential in that space just outside of our atmosphere and low earth orbit can be a first step towards unlocking limitless possibilities [Music] on this july 20th 1969. it's one small step cannot always be seized in a moment sometimes it requires the first step a step into the unknown not knowing the path but understanding the goal believing that the first step leads to greatness we've touched the sky believing it will lead to new worlds [Applause] we've left our home believing in a brighter future [Music] we've come together believing in shared goals [Music] we've stayed and learned believing in benefits for all we take the first step time and time again because we've witnessed its benefits and believe in its potential so we're expanding and enabling this step for others to push humanity further as we prepare for the next giant leap we'll always need this first step we're here to stay and now is the time to join us and low earth orbit is that first step and for nasa we're in it for the long haul for the last more than 20 years we've shown that you can get incredible value from doing research and technology demonstrations in low-earth orbit on the station and along the way we've continually increased our work with commercial organizations flying research payloads entire facilities experiments and working with u.s companies to fly cargo and crew to the station the latter of those laying the groundwork for the mission we're seeing about the launch today and we're continuing to look ahead onto the horizon working with companies like axiom and others to get a jump start on developing new destinations in low earth orbit where future astronauts and not just those from nasa will be able to go and explore and do research just outside of our atmosphere so we've got our sites on the horizon and our ultimate goal is for nasa to become one of many customers in this new economy in low earth orbit as we set our sights on deep space exploration heading back to the moon and beyond under the artemis program now the ax1 mission is a good example of the public and private partnerships that are going to make that future vision a reality but to take a little bit deeper of a dive let's jump over now to my colleague megan cruz who's standing by at kennedy space center with nasa administrator bill nelson over to you megan good morning to you dan and good morning nasa administrator bill nelson great to have you here as always good morning well i wanted to talk to you because we know that one of nasa's goals has been to enable commercial efforts in space with today's axiom one mission the first all private crew to the international space station what does today represent for the agency we're taking commercial business off the face of the earth and putting it up in space and that's one of our main programs now because we want to get nasa out of low earth orbit and go explore the heavens we want to direct our energy and our resources to do that because we're going back to the moon and we're going to mars and so we want for example we're going to continue the space station for another eight years we want to have commercial space stations nasa wants to become the ability to lease space on a commercial space station instead of having the responsibility of the space station yeah let's talk a little bit more about that because i know that we've seen success with commercial cargo missions commercial crew missions are commercial stations next uh indeed that's what we're doing today we are bringing a commercial company to our iss we are then going to have them attach a commercial module to the international space station and then we're encouraging the building we've got initiatives out there in private industry right now to build a commercial space station and then all of our international partners on the space station we're taking with us out into for example lunar orbit the gateway which is like a space station in lunar orbit is going to be a number of nations uh landing on the moon we're going to have other nations participate as well yeah it seems like there's a lot of partnerships going forward with nasa to accomplish some of the big goals that we have well as it should be because our program is internationally and when we go to mars uh there's going to be a delegation from planet earth are you excited for today's launch oh is the pope castle yes well thank you so much administrator i really appreciate you being here and i hope you enjoyed today's launch thanks a lot all right back to you guys at hawthorne we're at t-minus 46 minutes 10 seconds we've just heard from the spacex launch director brief the ce or ld and they will approve aborting the countdown for urgent issues affecting the safety of the operation operators shall call hold hold hold on the countdown net launch control will abort the launch auto sequence and immediately proceed into launch abort at t minus 10 seconds launch control will be hands off and relying on automated abort criteria for the manner of the account operators advise the launch director whether structural break-up or fires eminent occurring per dragon manual escape flight rules for those operators in firing up 4 in the event of a fire alarm key operators noted and 57-83 will remain at their post while the alarm is evaluated in the event that personnel safety is threatened evacuate to the south-facing emergency exit which leads directly outside fire group 4 and mccx will go into a sterile cockpit and lock down for the duration of the time the launch escape system is armed large hole at this time you may proceed with arming the crew armor movement then arming crew from crew armed for movement t-minus 45 minutes and counting you've just heard the spacex launch director give the final execution instructions to the launch team access arm retraction started we're ready for propellant load that'll begin about 10 minutes before that we've got crew access arm to retract happening now and then arming of the launch escape system everything continues to look good for an on-time launch of falcon 9 with axiom 1 mission dragon spacex for tablets as we prepare to step into les arming i need you to verify that the elastic bands are over the corners of all of the ipads in the vehicle [Applause] endeavor aren't breaking confirmed all right copy that thank you mla and for awareness that last call came in pretty quiet so if you could speak up on the upcoming calls have a great thanks [Applause] uh foxy okay we'll give you an update here inside of 43 minutes crew access arm has retracted from the dragon spacecraft next up we've got launch escape system arming and at t minus 45 minutes or t minus 35 minutes we'll begin loading propellant onto the falcon 9. so right now falcon 9's go dragons go weather looks good and the range areas are also cleared for launch so kate john everything is looking good all right inside of 42 minutes everything continues to go well waiting now for launch escape system army endeavor spacex for launch escape system go ahead aren't they all right mla at this time i'd give you a go step through section 7 of 4 decimal 100 close visors and arm the launch escape system that should work spacex endeavor visors are closed we are arming the launches cave system dragon spacex launch escape system is verified armed all right there you heard it the launch escape system is now armed you can see there the crew in their seats with visors down launch escape system you know is the first of its kind escape system it provides escape capability all the way to orbit it's a really important function to have obviously no intention of using it today but that's what those call outs were there um back and forth that we just heard right and as we heard earlier too from administrator bill nelson um you know the importance of low earth orbit so speaking of just how valuable low earth orbit is the crew of x1 will be conducting a tremendous amount of science over the course of their eight days onboard the iss and not only does that include 25 axiom managed studies but it also includes the axiom crew participating in efforts that extend far beyond this mission some of those we actually looked at earlier one of these broader studies is a series of health monitoring tests before and after the flight a few days ago i was able to connect with dr emmanuel riketsa to talk about the ongoing research this crew will participate in on behalf of the translation research institute for space health also known as trish here's our conversation dr iqeta welcome it is wonderful to get to talk to you uh please introduce yourself and tell us what is trish absolutely my name is emmanuel richetta and i'm the chief medical officer at the translational research institute for space health and i'm also faculty at baylor college of medicine in houston texas the translational research institute for space health or trish we're partners to the human research program at nasa and one of our main goals is to find and fund new disruptive research that is high risk but potentially high reward with the end goal of keep humans healthy both in space and on earth and we have been working with commercial spaceflight missions since last year and axiom one is our fourth commercial spaceflight mission that's really fascinating can you tell us a little bit more about your primary areas of focus or what you're studying on this mission yeah so trish focuses mainly on the high priority areas of human spaceflight research and i would say the three highest priority areas are radiation behavioral issues that come from being isolated and confined in space and the third one is how your body changes uh while you're in a different uh gravity field either a 0g environment like in space or during different gravity fields when you are in in the moon or mars okay interesting so what kind of systems or hardware are you working with specifically to capture this data for this mission the hardware that we're using is absolutely optimized to provide number one the the highest quality data while uh you know being still easy to use easy to implement uh and being the lowest burden to to the um to the astronauts so to collect all of these data for example vision changes we have been using a small device is roughly the size of a shoebox that you can see here come this year with me so this is basically like having an optometrist on a box basically the only thing that you have to do is just just grab it put it on your eyes look at an object that is roughly six feet away from you and after a few seconds you get a prescription of your glasses as right here so as i was saying um if there's any changes on on astronauts during these missions we'll be able to see how the changes with this device we're also looking i was mentioning that behavioral changes how uh being in in an isolated confined environment has any behavioral aspects and for this one we have been using a small tablet like this one also to test the sensory motor adaptation that the balance disorders and the space motion sickness we're using a device like this and for each of the of the crew members we have a set of hardware like this and it fits that the four sets of hardware fits on a medium-sized suitcase so it is it is really easy to move uh wherever it needs to go uh for for launch and uh and landing that's wonderful so what are some of the intended outcomes or goals of the research you're doing yeah so some of the outcomes uh and one of the main applications um number one for space flight that that we want to get from from this research is that short durations missions like action one are very very relevant in the context of artemis missions when we go back to the moon the first missions are going to be roughly the same duration as action one so anything new that we learn from these missions is going to be absolutely valuable really every new piece of data we collect in space flight could potentially solve and be that that last piece of the puzzle that we're looking to to complete what we need to know well dr riketa thank you so much for speaking with us today we wish you the best of luck it is my pleasure thank you all right we are about 30 minutes out from launch of the historic ax1 mission it has taken an enormous effort from an incredibly dedicated and hardworking team to get to this moment and that team wanted to take an opportunity to wish the crew of ax1 well and godspeed hey x1 we're so happy for you guys and just want to let you know we've got you here on the ground in mission control so fly high and have some fun from all of us here at the integrated performance team we want to wish you luck on your pioneering mission to the iss and hope to see you in a couple years when ax h1 launches it is not only an immense honor to get to watch your monumental mission but also to be able to support you on your journey towards this day as well hey guys can't wait for this mission we put a lot of hard work in we're excited for you all to have a great time up there and good luck thank you for helping set an important precedence ahead of a very bright future good luck ax1 crew let's conquer space hasta brando we want to send you all off with good wishes in this incredible journey god speed it has been such an honor to watch and support you guys as you prepare for this moment i'm so proud of each one of you for the dedication the long hours and the hard work you've put into making this a meaningful mission hello axiom astronauts thanks for stepping up to the plate for this amazing journey you guys have trained hard you've waited a long time and this is now happening safe travels on this historic mission for the first private astronauts to go to the iss it's happening wave to us from up above because we'll be thinking of you from down below we're the axiom safety team we just want you to know that we are really proud of you and we've got your back we're wishing you a safe and successful mission and we'll see you when you get back on the ground hi guys we're the axiom soft goods team and we just want to wish you a good mission and get back safely it's a real pleasure to be talking with you guys right now and we're super excited for you i'm here to cheer you on along with the entire crew systems team thanks for everything you're doing [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] i wish you all the very best the greatest of success and the most fun and the most challenging interesting thing in your life go big and enjoy your time on the iss we'll see you back on the ground hey guys i am so proud of the accident one crew it's so fun to be a part of something bigger than you and to contribute most important thing to remember guys take some time to look out the window and appreciate where you are it's space [Music] we're t minus 31 minutes and 40 seconds counting down to the first all-private astronaut mission to the international space station a few minutes ago falcon 9 propellant loading began on time at t minus 35 minutes rp1 fuel loading is underway on both the first and second stages liquid oxygen loading is underway on the first stage now we'll finish up fuel loading on the second stage at about t minus 20 minutes doesn't take very long and then we'll begin loading liquid oxygen on the second stage at about t minus 16 and a half minutes we'll continue propellant loading on falcon 9 up until about t-minus 2 minutes now speaking of propellants the dragon spacecraft was loaded with its propellants about a week and a half ago just a few miles down the road from the launch site at what we call dragon land in order to fly dragon needs a fuel and an oxidizer start of stage 1 cryo helium loading for the fuel we use monomethylhydrazine or mmh and nitrogen tetroxide or nto for oxidizer now together these propellants feed the draco engines that will maneuver dragon on orbit changing its attitude uh raising its orbit to get to the space station but that propellant also serves a second purpose and that would be to use in the eight super draco engines that would power the launch escape system in an escape scenario but right now on pad 39a nice view of falcon 9 with dragon there you can see the crew access arm has retracted away from the dragon spacecraft the four-person crew is inside dragon right now launch escape system is armed propellant is going into the falcon 9. so since we are at this stage with launch escape system arm that means there's eight super draco engines inside the crew dragon are ready if needed to launch the capsule away from the falcon 9 rocket in an instant should there be any kind of emergency associated with the rocket or the pad we have the ability to use a launch escape system right now if it was needed a couple other status items weather as you can see looks good probability of violating the launch commit criteria is less than 10 percent the only thing we're watching is wind gusts but we believe having seen the the wind for the last several hours everything continues to look good that should not be an issue weather is also good in the atlantic ocean should we need to use a launch escape splashdown site for the dragon capsule we've also got upper altitude winds we've been checking out uh balloons have been released by the range here recently we continue to look good for upper altitudes as falcon 93 flies through the periods of maximum dynamic pressure and finally on the range of course we have cleared the danger areas the hazard the caution areas everybody's out of there except the four-person crew up in the dragon capsule very top of the ride you can see in the picture so coming up t-minus 28 minutes 30 seconds everything continuing to look good on falcon 9 with dragon for the axiom 1 mission let's take a moment now to get acquainted with the vehicles that you see there on your screen that's a live view of falcon 9 with dragon our spacecraft on top falcon 9 rocket is a rocket to the falcon 9 rocket with the dragon spacecraft on top together stands about 215 feet which is almost 30 feet taller than the leaning tower of pisa in italy which is 130 183 feet falcon 9 is a reusable two-stage liquid-fueled rocket which means that it's kind of like two rockets in one the first stage and the second stage very cool so talking a bit about that first stage the first stage is the bottom two thirds of the vehicle that you see there has a nice patina it's been reused a little bit it's covered in soot from a previous mission that first stage is responsible for accelerating falcon and dragon through the earth's atmosphere and into space to do that it has nine merlin engines at the bottom of that first stage prior to liftoff the falcon 9 first stage is loaded up with nearly 1 million pounds of fuel and liquid oxygen and the merlin engines on the first stage are optimized for sea level these achieve 190 000 pounds of thrust during ascent and descent the first stage accelerates the vehicle through the earth's atmosphere into space and then separates the rest of the rocket at about two and a half minutes into flight from there the first stage will do what no other orbital class rocket in the world can do it'll make its way back to earth and target a landing on our drone ship a shortfall of gravitas which you see there on your screen the seas look great the blue skies i i don't think it could be any more picture perfect no it's like a desktop right there i think our drone ships are essentially autonomous powered space ports that allow our rocket to land over the ocean for reference our drone ships are equivalent to the size of a football field so uh while it may have looked kind of small on your screen they're actually pretty ginormous in real life it's got to be to hold a rocket right um as man as mentioned previously falcon 9 is a two-stage rocket it's two rockets in one above the first stage is the second stage now the second stage has a single merlin vacuum or mvac engine which ignites after the first stage separates now the second stage is essentially a smaller version of the first stage and whereas the first stage is designed to power the vehicle out of earth's atmosphere in the forces of gravity the second stage is specifically designed to operate in the vacuum of space the second stage powers the dragon spacecraft to its specific specific targeted drop-off point in orbit the dragon spacecraft is capable of carrying up to seven passengers to and from earth orbit and beyond but for today's mission it is carrying four members of the axiom one crew it is the first private spacecraft to take humans to the space station and the only spacecraft currently flying that is capable of returning significant amounts of cargo to earth like the falcon 9 rocket the dragon spacecraft is also reusable today will be the third flight to space for this dragon spacecraft that the axiom one crew is flying in today uh the previous flights for this this capsule supported were uh recently the crew 2 mission and before that the demo 2 mission which was our first human flight mission pretty incredible yeah now as we await t0 in just under 25 minutes the ground operations teams are doing a series of system checks to make sure both dragon and falcon 9 are ready for launch let's take a look at what the ascent portion of this mission will look like right so once we hit t minus zero we will watch falcon 9 and dragon lift off from historic launch pad 39a and make their ascent at about 50 seconds into flight falcon 9's engines will throttle down to help pass through the period of maximum dynamic pressure on the rocket or what we typically refer to as max-q it's worth noting that once we hit max-q the vehicle will be going supersonic once we're through the period of maximum dynamic pressure we can throttle up our merlin engines again from there at about two and a half minutes into flight we have a series of three events that happen in rapid succession the first of which is miko or main engine cutoff this is where all nine merlin engines shut off in preparation for stage separation which as the name suggests that is where the first stage detaches from the second stage with the first stage making its way back to earth for landing as the second stage continues on its journey with the third event right now ses one or second engine start one is where the merlin vacuum engine lights up and propels the second stage along with our ax1 crew into orbit as stage two heads towards its targeted drop off orbit stage one will execute two burns in order to make its way back to earth the first stage is the entry burn where three of the merlin 1d engines will reignite and then shut down this helps to slow the stage down in preparation for entry back into earth's atmosphere while the first stage is heading back to earth the second stage will cut off its singular merlin engine and that was ignited right after stage separation once this happens we'll wait for confirmation of good orbital insertion about 90 seconds after dragon gets into orbit falcon 9 will land back on earth the landing burn which is a single engine burn will bring the vehicle's speed down rapidly in order to land on the drone ship at about nine and a half minutes into the mission and while falcon 9's first stage is landing dragon is preparing to separate from the second stage about three minutes after the second stage gets into orbit we should have a great view of dragon with his four-person crew drifting away from the second stage now once dragon is a short distance away it will begin checking out its draco maneuvering thrusters to make sure dragon continues to increase separation distance from the second stage and lastly the nosecone deploy sequence will initiate just before t plus 12 minutes and finish around t plus 15 minutes and this sequence will expose dragon's docking mechanism in advance of its arrival at the international space station so uh as you can tell it's it's a pretty jam-packed 12-minute job pay attention pay close attention to what you're listening to don't blink with all that in mind let's head back over to dan hewitt for an update from the iss team over at johnson space center dan hey thanks kate now inside the room the international space station flight control room flight director scott stover is leading the teams right now but just about four hours ago nasa flight director diane daly gave a go on behalf of the combined iss team to the spacex mission director just saying that iss or the space station was go for launch now to get there we've got a list of flight rules basically just guidelines for all of the major systems we have to make sure are functioning onboard station before we can give a go to launch another crew up there so we're looking at everything from those core critical command and control computers verifying we have a good communication path through our tracking and data relay satellites ensuring that the atmosphere all of the life support systems on board are functioning even the mechanical systems like the docking port where this mission is headed so we're expecting today's flight to be about a 20 and a half hour journey from launch to docking with the crew dragon endeavor headed towards the node 2 zenith that's the space facing port on the top of node 2 the harmony module on board the station and once they get there they're going to get welcomed by the expedition 67 crew which is made up of seven individuals right now four from our spacex through crew three 445 for the teams over in hawthorne and so once they get there they'll be able to get out of their suits onboard the dragon spacecraft while the team onboard station moves into what's known as uh the hatch operations uh station commander tom martian is going to be pressurizing that small area between dragon and the station hatches we expect it to be a little under two hours from docking to hatch open and then we'll welcome the ax1 crew on board the space station so a lot to come with that 20 and a half hour journey but all that's gonna start with a launch so i'll send it back over to hawthorne as we get into the final phases of the countdown back over to you john right well dan as you mentioned it all starts with the launch and kate it's looking like it's getting pretty busy here people are excited about seeing a launch right yeah we're just now under 20 minutes until liftoff as you could probably tell by the the noise uh the crew here excuse me the the the crowd here in hawthorne uh we're at spacex headquarters in hawthorne california is starting to gather just beyond mission control here uh in the building and uh you might be able to tell by the ambient noise in addition to the live production noises that you also hear you know we are in a rocket factory um but yeah you can see there the crowd is starting to grow behind the mission the team there at hawthorne mission control now we saw dan speaking earlier from mission control in johnson there is a mission control center in florida where the spacex teams are also gathered um in firing room four and then we have the the launch view the mission control center here there's a shot of our firing room four there in florida at cape canaveral you can just barely make out pad 39a they're in the distance they're through the window um might be wondering why all the different mission control rooms the one in johnson as dan was saying you know that's really mission control for the international space station and those operations the control room that you see there is for everything leading up to launch um as soon as falcon 9 lifts off uh responsibility and control transfers to mission control center here in hawthorne uh so just a quick explanation for why why so many rooms with computers exactly yeah in addition to all the teams gathering here we've got teams of our own gathering in houston at axiom headquarters you can see there on your screen axiom mission control with uh the lovely axiom family behind them looking in proudly all right well you know dan mentioned that you know first we have launch then we got rendezvous docking and then we've got eight days of jam-packed activity on the iso so busy yeah and docking day is not it's not just a ride to space right you you get up there you open that hatch and crew is working i got a little chance to look at some of their timeline um and as soon as they open that door they are getting invited in they are getting trained on some emergency procedures and then stepping right into payload activity stowage transfers um and just generally getting acclimated but they're working before they go to sleep and the work doesn't stop there it sounds a lot like everything leading up to launch itself you know everything is scheduled planned um even you know we know that even sleep time is scheduled on the iss and something that's uh incredible to me is that not only do you have work to do with you know your science experiments and that kind of stuff not only do you have to get some sleep before you can um but you also have to exercise right the exercise time which can be a couple hours all right so good news there we have begun locks load liquid oxygen loading on second stage so that is currently underway for first and second stage as well as loading of rp-1 which is our fuel on both first and second stages right right and again you know some of those things that he talked about it's all following a timeline right and we are listening for those important cues along the way that we're hearing on these nets or on the loops listening for where are we along in that timeline so we know exactly where we are in terms of launch as we count down at just t minus 15 from launch yeah so i'm looking uh at my dashboard here it looks like fuel load on second stage is now complete so we're beginning that locks load as we just heard locks load and fuel load continues on first stage axiom crew continuing to wait following along with everything happening there with the touch screen displays there above them as well as their tablets strapped to their legs right everything continuing to look nominal for liftoff in just about 15 minutes and as we approach that liftoff in these final moments of our countdown to launch axiom space founders cam gefarin and mike sufferdini wanted to take a moment to reflect on this mission well this moment for me and michael is a very special moment in a beginning of many beginnings right the launch of ax1 uh going to international space station as part of our journey to build the first private commercial space station and we're so grateful to be here and delighted at this moment as part of this incredible journey to commercialize and privatize low earth orbit on behalf of cam and i we'd like to thank the entire team that's made this historic journey possible the spacex team in particular has done a tremendous job of prepping our crew for a launch on their transportation vehicle the crew itself has done a fantastic job of getting themselves ready and playing their research nasa of course we can't do this without nasa's leadership and support and to each of you in the axiom space family we couldn't have done it without you we're looking forward to a bright future together [Music] t minus 14 minutes seven seconds and continuing to count down everything is still looking good for launch of falcon 9 and dragon that'll occur 17 minutes and 12 seconds after the hour as a recap falcon 9 began propellant loading at t minus 35 minutes we just heard loading of the rp1 fuel the kerosene fuel on stage 2 was completed right on time at t minus 20 minutes we still got fuel going onto the first stage looks like we're about 90 or so full right now fuel loading will finish up at t minus six minutes and we'll hear that call out in the countdown meanwhile densified liquid oxygen is continuing to load onto both the first and second stages first stage will close out at t minus three minutes the second stage we just began loading liquid oxygen at t minus 16 and a half minutes just a few minutes ago that'll wrap up at the t minus two minute mark now we load the liquid oxygen as late as we can in the countdown it's densified that means it's ultra cold well below the boiling point of liquid oxygen that lets us put as much as we can on the vehicle for performance and getting it on board the vehicle just before liftoff means it won't warm up where you start to lose the ability to put liquid oxygen onto the stages into the tank uh in the quantities we want so it stays nice and cold it doesn't bleed off and that gives us the performance we need on falcon 9. continuing on falcon 9 checkouts of the thrust vector controllers what we call tvc wiggles you may hear that term they're coming up we're also going to be doing throttle valve checkouts on the merlin engines that helps control the power of the engines as we go through flight for example you hear a throttle down or throttle up as we prepare for the period of maximum dynamic pressure as we come up on the 12-minute mark the range continues to be go uh roadblocks are up all the hazard areas are clear airspace c-space is good the weather is go beautiful shots you can see here blue skies i'm looking forward to some great views from the cameras as we head into space and finally on the dragon side the dragon mission director and team they're reporting no issues we've done the communication checkouts with the crew you can see the crew access arm has retracted into the launch position you can see dragon now with the strung back the transport erector and the umbilical is going to drag and along alongside of it we've also armed the launch escape system and obviously the crew is strapped in the dragon capsule and they're ready to go final instructions of the crew will come in about a minute and a half at t minus 10. we'll listen to that the crew displays will be configured for launch and that setup will give the crew insight into how the launch is proceeding and it provides constant updates on vehicle health the t-minus five minutes will be in the terminal count for dragon dragon will transition to internal power going to its onboard batteries and off of the external ground power we're gonna hear continued call outs on the countdown net as we go from t minus 10 to zero and then as we fly after t0 and liftoff we'll hear call outs as we head into space that'll be letting the crew know as they reach each of the milestones now next big event coming up at t minus 10 minutes is we're going to do launch commit criteria and final instructions will be going to the crew one other thing that you will hear is during ascent you may hear one alpha one bravo two alpha these are launch escape states is the falcon 9 flies if a launch escape was required the crew on board knows where they are passing various points in the countdown and that would tell dragon what sequence of events to execute to come off of the falcon 9 and bring the crew back safely down under the parachutes in the ocean right now t minus 10 minutes let's listen in to the countdown dragon spacex confirmed crew displays are configured for launch spacex and pepper we confirm they're configured stop the mla and on behalf of the entire spacex team we're honored to have you aboard endeavor for its third flight to the international space station axiom one marks a new step in commercial space flight and research we wish you a great mission good luck godspeed and enjoy the ride thanks for those awards arthur i've got a few of my own i'm going to let my crew made a song say it first and a few minutes before launching on this journey i wish to share with you the words of the greek poet constantine kawasi that will describe the perspective of our marvelous group keep ithaca always in your mind arriving there is what you are designed for but do not hurry the journey at all better if it lasts for years to you so you are old by the time you reach the island wealthy with all you have gained on the way not expecting isaka to make you rich itaka gave you this marvelous journey that's the high x1 far less elegantly or eloquently but uh you sit here on the precipice of this new era in human space flight and we do so on the shoulders of professionals at spacex nasa and exit we want to thank all the teams at spacex falcon 9 dragon the watch team at fourth closure seeing all of the folks in mission control um and of course our training team this massive boy's been talking they're the first time the bill is hard and there's no playbook it's all open for running but with iss programs commercial wheel development and flight operations we've learned a lot and we'll continue to do so we want to thank kim and seth for their vision but especially all the people at action for putting this mission together with the amount of miracles that they perform all of you make no mistake are the men and the women in the arena their faces are marred metaphorically by their best sweat will have no place with their cold intended souls to know either victory nor defeat the crew of the great ship endeavor is ready to sail her family aren't they some heartfelt words there's one engine started all right so there was the call that uh we have begun to chill the engines on the first stage so what we're doing right now is flowing a little bit of the super chilled liquid oxygen through the turbo pumps on those m1d engines there's nine of them at the base of the first stage and that's essentially bringing them down to the temperature of that superchilled liquid oxygen to prevent any thermal shock to the hardware and just before that call some really heartfelt words from commander mla and mission specialist ayton stibba really love hearing that commentary stage one rpu load is complete [Music] at this point in time the at this point in time uh fuel is fully loaded on both the first and second stage lox loading continues uh on both stages coming up on five and a half minutes kate's let us know that we've got the field load complete next is coming up with g minus five minutes dragon will be transitioning configuration for terminal count and going on its internal battery power everything continues to look good as we're counting down dragon is in configure for terminal count falcon 9 tanks are pressing for strongback retracts you've heard the call out we're pressurizing the tanks for strong back retract we'll hear a sequence momentarily strong back is retracting actually that's the start of about a one minute sequence about t-minus four minutes the clamp arms that you can see there will open and then and then we will see the retract from there so we've heard the call out that's the start of the sequence doesn't mean that the clamp arms are late opening will take us a few more seconds as you can hear the excitement and the crowd is really growing here at spacex headquarters at hawthorne california there you can see the clamp arms have begun to open and next we should see the strong back begin to retract this structure is what we basically use to transport the fully integrated vehicle to and from the hangar from the hanger to the launch pad and there you can see that strong back retraction has begun everything continued to look nominal as we're now under three and a half minutes until launch rp-1 fuel is fully loaded on first and second stage should be wrapping up locksload on the first stage momentarily and continuing to fill on second stage stage one lock float is complete we're under three minutes until liftoff of the axiom one mission dragon is in terminal count and is on internal power all right there we heard that dragon is on internal power as i was saying we're getting close the crowds are growing the excitement is palpable you can see there on the left-hand side of your screen mission control here in hawthorne california just behind where john and i are and then on the right hand side that looks like axiom mission control it's like axiom mission control in houston texas everybody's waving and saying hey all right at this point in time that locks load on first stage is complete so the first stage is now fully loaded with all of its propellant box load on second stage continues as we've mentioned before stage two load is complete all right so there's that call at this point in time falcon 9 dragon is an auto idol dragon is fully loaded with all of its propellants nearly 1 million pounds of that propellant next event the gas closeouts we finished pressurizing the storage tanks on board the falcon 9 they gave the crew the heads up may hear some loud landing noises we're also going to vent down the liquid oxygen line that carried the box up to the second stage generates a typical large white cloud of condensation around the strum bag big event coming up now t-minus one minute all the flight computers take over let's listen in to the last minute of terminal count fts is armed falcon 9 is in startup and now controlling dragon is in countdown dragon spacex go for launch spacex endeavor we acknowledge go for lunch t-minus 30 seconds t minus 15 seconds 10 9 8 7 6 five four three two one zero ignition stop go falcon go dragon god speed axiom one together a new chapter begins godspeed ax1 stage 1 propulsion is nominal t-plus 38 seconds into this historic mission flying crew on board dragon and falcon all right telemetry nominal stage one throttle down throttling down in the preparation for max dynamic pressure falcon 9 is supersonic [Music] execute stage one throttle up burling1d engines coming back up to power one one bravo the crew calling out one bravo should a escape situation arise it tells the dragonfly computer what profile to fly using the super draco engines but everything is looking good on falcon 9. we're getting nominal call-outs from all the engineers and a great view from the ground camera and the on-board underway beginning to chill in the second stage turbo pump in preparation for its ignition coming up in just over half a minute from now coming up on about three and a half g's acceleration for the crew we'll begin throttling down the merlin engines to hold that period that level of acceleration next event coming up we're going to get main engine cut off of the blind engines get stage separation and ignition of the second stage engine you've heard the throttle down call out we're holding three and a half g's for the crew and mikko [Applause] bad position [Applause] successful stage separation ignition of the second stage engine on the left the titanium grid fins beginning to slowly deploy great views from the first stage camera the first stage now begins a slow flip maneuver you can see the white nitrogen gas plumes as we reorient for an entry back through the earth's atmosphere a little bit later in the plus count second stage we see the engine nozzles of glowing red everything continuing to look good on the second stage we should be hearing call outs coming up to the crew here shortly on how the trajectory is looking dragon spacex trajectory nominal what we like to hear signal bermuda aos bermuda acquisition signal bermuda tracking station now getting telemetry from the second stage of the falcon 9 with the dragon on top two plus four minutes 10 seconds everything continues to be nominal first stage coasting to apogee and then it will come back down for landing on the drone ship second stage part way through its lengthy burn to get the crew into orbit so kate four and a half minutes in everything continues to look good what a absolutely picture perfect liftoff we've got a live view of the crew inside dragon endeavor looks like uh everyone is still pretty comfy uh as john had said earlier we got trajectory nominal all right good call out there that trajectory is nominal uh as john mentioned we got to about three and a half g's there new hampshire on the left-hand side of your screen we can see the first stage as it is making its way back down to earth it's targeting a landing on our drone ship a shortfall of gravitas which is parked a couple hundred miles off the coast of florida out in the atlantic ocean second stage on the right hand side everything continues to be nominal there as the mvac engine is powering the second stage and dragon in denver it's dragon endeavor to its targeted drop-off orbit [Applause] absolutely beautiful views of both the first and second stage trajectory [Applause] all right so coming up in about a minute and a half uh the first stage will execute the first of two burns required for today's landing attempt um at about t plus 7 minutes and 30 seconds we'll see the entry burn begin that's where the first stage will ignite the center engine first and then a couple seconds later ignite two more engines so a total of three engine burn which will last about 29 seconds the entry burn slows the vehicle down significantly as it re-enters back into the earth's atmosphere the first stage sees high drag which grabs roughly 70 percent of that velocity by the time that the landing burn begins stunning view where you can see the curvature of the earth there on the left hand side dragon spacex trajectory nominal there you can see the nitrogen gas thruster so that's the puff of gas that you see there occasionally that's used for attitude control systems we also utilize those grid fins that you see there are four of them placed around the booster and those grid fins also help steer for a precise landing either one entry burn startup stage two all right there we can see that that entry burn has begun we are targeting a landing on our drone ship a shortfall of gravitas today everything continuing to look nominal with trajectory and mvac performance there for our second stage on the right hand side so we are conducting the entry burn previously the booster burn shut down that entry burn helps slow the booster down it was going about 25 times the speed of sound so we slow it down as it reenters the dense part of the earth's atmosphere the next event is second engine cutoff or seco one as you see it there on the timeline at the bottom of your screen attached to internal guidance that's where we shut down the m back engine or second engine cutoff copy shannon stage one transonic note that our landing burn and second engine cutoff uh will occur about the same time shut down all right we got a live view of the crew inside dragon endeavor there on the right hand side of your screen stage one landing burn landing burn has begun for the first day for stages all right great news there dragon endeavor nominal orbit insertion spacex endeavor we copied and it's great to be here zero g and we feel fine stage one landing lake deploy spacex dragon launch skip systems as you can see this falcon 9 has landed for the fifth time all the while great commentary there while we can confirm the landing page confirmed landing there of the first stage booster also almost simultaneously great news uh for the second stage we've heard that there was nominal orbit insertion uh for crew dragon endeavor there you can see a live view inside our dragon looks like the crew is beginning to adjust to zero gene if you look at the right hand side corner it looks like we can see the zero g indicator that was one of mine that was one of the things i really wanted to see what they were going to bring for their zero g indicators so i can't wait to see what comes on it looks i can't quite tell pokemon uh maybe okay well hopefully it'll it'll come into closer view right now we'll get to ask them later go to it yeah great to see the crew here again starting to like really getting their first taste of microgravity oh it has ears oh it's a bunny is that bumper i think it might be i think that's thumper from bambi love it so right now the second stage is basically preparing for dragon separation we are the next step now that as we said dragon has nominal orbital insertion the second stage and dragon will separate use there of our mvac engine now shut off no longer glowing that lovely shade of orange right now the second stage is about 200 kilometers above earth preparing now for stage separation excuse me for dragon separation for those of you that have just recently joined us we had an on-time liftoff of the axiom one crew they are now in space and coming up to separation from second stage at which point they will then begin to make their journey continue their journey to the international space station the view that you're currently looking at is inside the dragon trunk which as you can see has just separated from the second stage [Applause] on behalf of the falcon 19 welcome to space thanks for flying falcon 9. you guys enjoy your trip to that wonderful space station in the sky do some great research for us we'll see you back here underground now stand by for some words from ld and mla and and uh that's the crew endeavor glad we got to have some fun this morning we'll probably be calling an early weekend over here at the cape pass you over to anna and the team you'll be in good hands godspeed endeavor enjoy the rest of your flight cheers hey mark it was a lot of fun i've been to the guests we had a little bit more than you did every thank you and your launch team birthed you in the falcon 19 that was an override and we're looking forward to the next 10 days all right some nice words there from a couple of key folks my first quindar tone of the mission yeah i queued up right when i heard that there we expected this expected loss to signal bermuda and new hampshire there we can see uh dragon endeavor on its way to the international space station it has separated there's a view inside nominal dehumidifier activation service section draco checkouts there we can see over the shoulder of every copy over the shoulder previously commander mla was on the left and pilot larry connor was on the right live view inside the cabin they just got the okay to lift their visors all right so we can see that everyone is in space we can see that zero g indicator floating around a great view there um of dragon endeavor now in space with the axiom one crew on their way to the international space station yeah i mean this is a day of first you know this is my first time getting to participate in a launch like this is the first for axiom and this is a first first base flight and it's just wonderful to see such a picture picture perfect launch it really well we saw the landing and we saw uh orbital or uh zero g insertion at the same time i mean that was perfect yeah it was wonderful to see all right well as i just said today's launch is one for the history books so to punctuate this milestone that nasa and commercial companies are able to achieve together we go now to kennedy space center where megan cruz is with nasa's kathy leaders i am here right now with the associate administrator of nasa's space operations mission directorate so great to have you here kathy what did you think of the launch oh my gosh it's always like you know right in the bottom of my throat i'm holding can't breathe can't breathe yes but what a beautiful beautiful sight yeah so good to see it i want to tell everybody working artemis one wet dress we're off the range we're off the range for axiom one and we can get moving but um you always wanna hear the engine cut off you always want to hear that second stage engines lighting you always want to hear you know each of these stages and we need to just keep carefully working through the different steps to get that crew there to the international space station safely yeah what does axiom one represent axiom one and also future private astronaut missions to the international space station hey you know nasa's original goal was to enable commercial industry that was actually in our original space act agreement and so here we are you know 60 years later enabling that through our missions and so i just feel like this is a culmination of 60 years of work for us and here we are once again getting to see and for the first time the first time getting to have commercial you know private astronauts going to the international space station and they'll get to see what our government that what they're calling professional astronauts doing their real work but they're also getting to do their work too and it's a it's another place where learning to peacefully work in space i think is moving us forward yeah so important and you know we just watched axiom one lift off from that launch pad right there behind us in a couple of weeks we're going to see crew 4 launch from that same launch pad and then just right next to it pad 39v we have nasa's brand new space launch system can you recall a busier time we've had here at the space coast and how is kennedy space center managing its new role as this multi-user spaceport so i think somebody else this is i mean bob cabana had this dream of a multi-user spaceport here so i think he should be very very proud of his ksc team and janet petro and her team are obviously leading the way right now because this is not easy to do it's not easy to go make sure all these people have all the capabilities and are obviously working with our air force uh sister agency there too and making sure that all these launches get supported in a seamless way just an amazing job yeah a lot of juggling that has to happen so you know i just talked about sls we are looking forward to the moon with that launch later this year you know why is it still so important to maintain a presence in low earth orbit when we're looking towards the moon now because we still don't have everything figured out how to do things yet for the moon and mars and really the cheapest place for us to see a differential gravity environment and for the long term it's still leo yeah and so we've got to continue to do these long duration flights keep doing our medical protocols keep doing our physical protocols keep testing out our equipment through those long duration missions it's only place where we can do that right now and so we still need to be able to have this kind of a test bed for us to be checking out and proving our protocols our research our technology before you go put somebody in a rocket that's going to go to mars right so just like always we prepare we get ourselves ready and a lower orbit destination is a perfect place to do that and again how does us fostering commercialization efforts in space how does that free us up to pursue these other dreams that we have as an agency so you know the administrator today in in the um pre-mission conference he said you know we right now are doing this is our first step we're working with a a commercial company to have them come to our international space station and we're learning to work together and figuring out how to work together and this is going to be an important step for us because moving forward we would actually like to now be able to buy a ride and time on orbit yeah with the commercial company to be able to have them do that and so this is the first step of their learning from us and that's learning from them and then in the future you know we're going to have space station for another eight years but we would like by the early 2030s for us to be flipping the rules yeah and have our professional astronauts going up and and checking and doing and focusing on the research and technology we need for exploration but allowing commercial providers to be doing the hard work of maintaining the laboratory kathy what an exciting future i'm looking forward to seeing it and thank you again for being here thank you all right back to you dan all right hey thanks megan it is great to see the ax1 mission on orbit the team here with the space station already we're ready to get them on board so their journey just started they've got about 20 and a half hours until they're docked to the space station again they're headed for the zenith port on node 2 that's the space facing one on the very top uh with that docking scheduled right now for 11 45 gmt on saturday uh that is just about 6 45 i have a feather in my right hand a hammer but i guess one of the reasons we got here today was because of a gentleman named galileo a long time ago who made a rather significant discovery about falling objects in gravity fields and we thought that where would be a better place to confirm his findings and on the moon and so we thought we'd try it here for you the feather happens to be appropriately a falcon feather in la nasa records [Music] international and nasa [Music] [Music] you

Channel: NASA

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Length: 85min 44sec (5144 seconds)

Published: Fri Apr 08 2022