SpaceX successfully launched a spacecraft with tourists on board

SpaceX launched a Falcon 9 rocket with a manned Crew Dragon spacecraft to the International Space Station (ISS) as part of the Axiom private commercial program.

A SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket delivered four crew members — two Americans and two Saudi Arabians — into space on Sunday at 5:37 p.m. ET.

There are Peggy Whitson, former NASA astronaut and first female commander of a private space mission, entrepreneur John Shoffner, and Saudi astronauts Rayyanah Barnawi and Ali Alqarni on board.

The spacecraft is expected to dock with the ISS at 9:16 a.m. ET on Monday, May 22.

The tourists will spend eight days at the station, where they will help the ISS staff to work on more than 20 experiments and scientific projects.

This is the second commercial flight to the ISS under the program of the American company Axiom. The first took place in April 2022, and the third is planned to launch at the end of 2023.

Presumably, the cost of the flight for each member of the first mission was $55 million.