Space Center Houston hosted local area students for a special space-to-ground video call with Axiom Mission 1 (Ax-1) astronauts currently aboard the International Space Station. The Ax-1 crew, the first all-private astronaut mission to the orbiting laboratory, took questions for 20 minutes from students ages 9 to 18 about what it’s like to work and live aboard the space station.
The event, which occurred on Wednesday, April 13 at 11:35 a.m. CT in the auditorium of Space Center Houston, included all Ax-1 crewmembers, Commander Michael López-Alegría, Pilot Larry Connor, and Mission Specialists Eytan Stibbe and Mark Pathy.
Commander López-Alegría answered some questions in English and Spanish from the Houston-based kids.
The Ax-1 mission launched on Friday, April 8, from NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida. Ax-1 is the first all-private astronaut mission to the ISS and the first of several proposed missions to the space station from Axiom Space, a leader in human spaceflight, now building the first commercial space station. During their time in space, the crew members will work on more than 25 experiments, contributing to a broad range of scientific research.