NASA approves crew for Axiom Space’s second private astronaut mission to Space Station

Axiom Space's second private astronaut mission to the International Space Station, Axiom Mission 2 (Ax-2), has been given the go-ahead by NASA and its international partners, the agency announced on Friday.

Peggy Whitson, a former NASA astronaut and the Director of Human Spaceflight at Axiom Space, will be the commander of this privately-funded mission. John Shoffner, an aviator from Knoxville, Tennessee, will be the pilot. The identities of the two mission specialists will be revealed at a later date.

NASA and Axiom Space signed a mission order for the Ax-2 private astronaut mission in August 2022. Ax-2 is set to take off from the agency's Kennedy Space Center in Florida and make its way to the International Space Station. Once docked, the Axiom astronauts will be spending 10 days on the ISS, where they will be coordinating with the station crew and flight controllers on the ground to carry out various activities.

.@NASA and its international partners have approved the crew for the second @Axiom_Space private astronaut mission to the space station. https://t.co/egEE1ynanF

— International Space Station (@Space_Station) January 20, 2023

For over two decades, NASA has been sustaining a continuous American presence in low-Earth orbit. The agency's ambition is to create a low-Earth orbit market where NASA is just one of the many customers, and the private sector is in the driver's seat.