CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. — The historic Ax-1 crew arrived at the International Space Station on Saturday.
Crew members Michael López-Alegría, Larry Connor, Eytan Stibbe and Marky Pathy entered the space station after the hatch opened at 10:13 a.m. on Saturday, Axiom Space reports.
There, they were greeted by Expedition 67 crew members. Altogether, they make up 11 people working and living on the orbiting laboratory.
Mission commander López-Alegría pinned Connor, Stibbe and Pathy with a pin from the Association of Space Explorers (ASE), making their astronaut status official as they begin their journey in space, Axiom Space said.
"There's a tradition when you pass a certain boundary you become an astronaut. That happened to these three gentlemen for the first time yesterday. Now I'd like to note it officially," López-Alegría explained before pinning each of his Ax-1 crewmates. "When I pin these on – I think the numbers are 582, 583, and 584 for Larry, Eytan, and Mark – I hope they will wear these with the pride they deserve."
The Axiom Space crew will live and work aboard the ISS for eight days. Their work will consist of 25 research experiments across a range of categories including biological and technological studies to educate future human spaceflight and improve life on Earth.
The crew took off at 11:17 a.m. Friday after spending days quarantine and finalizing preparations in Florida.
This mission is the "first of several proposed Axiom Space missions to the International Space Station," Axiom Space has said.
