From the Liveblog of
Saturday, April 9, 2022
Capsule carrying Israeli Eytan Stibbe successfully docks at International Space Station
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A space capsule carrying four people, including Israeli Eytan Stibbe, has docked at the International Space Station.
Stibbe sent a message in Hebrew from space earlier today.
The Dragon capsule had paused its approach after the failure of a video feed needed for docking, but teams on the ground found a way to work around the issue.
The first fully private mission to the International Space Station blasted off from Florida on Friday.
NASA has hailed the three-way partnership with Axiom and SpaceX as a key step towards commercializing the region of space known as “Low Earth Orbit,” leaving the agency to focus on more ambitious voyages deeper into the cosmos.
Businessmen Stibbe, American Larry Connor of Ohio, and Canadian Mark Pathy have paid $55 million apiece for the rocket ride.
The visitors’ tickets include access to all but the Russian portion of the space station — they’ll need permission from the three cosmonauts on board. Three Americans and a German also live up there.
Stibbe, a former fighter pilot and the second-ever Israeli to go to space, is carrying some 35 experiments for companies and research institutions on the privately funded Rakia Mission to the orbiting lab.
The Times of Israel Community.