Shulou(Shulou.com)11/24 Report--

On November 3, NASA and Houston-based Axiom Space confirmed this week that two Saudi astronauts will take part in the Axiom 2 (Ax-2) mission to the International Space Station aboard SpaceX's manned dragon spacecraft.

It is reported that the Axiom 2 mission is the second private space mission led by the Axiom Space Company, which will send four people to the International Space Station. At present, all four crew members have been identified.

Angela Hart, project manager for NASA commercial low-Earth orbit development, did not disclose the names of the two Saudis. "We are already trying to train them," Hart said on Tuesday at a meeting of the Human Exploration and Operations Committee of the NASA Advisory Committee.

The Axiom 2 mission already has two crew members, commanded by retired NASA astronaut Peggy Peggy Whitson and by race car driver and air show pilot John Shoffner, who pays for the astronauts' seats. The Axiom 2 mission, which aims to arrive at the International Space Station next spring, will also kick off the Saudi astronaut program.

Six weeks before the ▲ Axiom 1 mission, Saudi Arabia announced the launch of an astronaut program to send two people, at least one woman, into space. Information released at the time showed that Saudi Arabia would send two astronauts to the International Space Station through Axiom Space, but did not specify the time. NASA said at the time that the manned space mission was waiting for approval. Now Saudi astronauts have begun training at NASA, which seems to indicate that the space flight has been approved.

The two Saudi astronauts were not the first Saudis to go into space after Prince Sultan bin Salman al-Saud (Sultan bin Salman Al Saud) carried out a STS-51-G mission aboard the space shuttle Discovery in 1985.

During the Axiom 2 mission, four astronauts will travel to the International Space Station on the Falcon 9 rocket aboard SpaceX's manned dragon spacecraft. NASA plans to implement new rules for subsequent axiom manned space missions, drawing on some of the "lessons" learned by commercial astronauts during their first visit to the International Space Station.

Due to some scheduling problems with Axiom Space, it asked NASA to provide an astronaut from the International Space Station to complete the Axiom 1 mission. NASA finally proposed that all Axiom Space's manned space missions should be led by a former NASA astronaut. NASA will also approve scientific experiments in the early stages of the mission plan. Coincidentally, the Axiom 1 mission was led by Michael L ó pez- Alegria, a NASA astronaut who participated in three shuttle missions and one International Space Station mission.

SpaceX is currently the only supplier allowed to send humans to the International Space Station, and the company has completed five manned space missions for NASA to the International Space Station. The most recent Crew-5 manned space mission arrived at the International Space Station in early October this year.

Earlier this year, the company won a $1.4 billion contract to carry out five other manned space missions to the International Space Station.

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