It's Launch Day! Here's what you need to know about SpaceX's Axiom-2 mission from KSC

Update: Liftoff of SpaceX Falcon 9 at 5:37 p.m. EDT, Sunday, May 21, from Pad 39A at Kennedy Space Center in Florida, followed by a first-stage booster landing at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station's Landing Zone 1.

SpaceX is on track to launch a Falcon 9 rocket and Dragon capsule with a crew of four private astronauts from Kennedy Space Center this evening.  Follow FLORIDA TODAY's Space Team live launch coverage at  https://www.floridatoday.com/space/ .

Here's everything you need to know:

• Liftoff is scheduled for 5:37 p.m. EDT Sunday, May 21, from pad 39A at Kennedy Space Center in Florida.

• Forecasters predict a 60% chance of "go" conditions at the pad.

• Approximately eight minutes after liftoff, the Falcon 9 rocket's first-stage booster will target a landing back at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station's Landing Zone 1, generating a sonic boom.

• Axiom-2 is the second all-private crewed mission to the International Space Station for Houston-based Axiom Space. It's contracted with NASA.

• The mission is expected to last about ten days; eight docked to the International Space Station and two days for travel.

• After undocking, the crew of four will travel back to Earth for a splashdown landing at a site off the coast of Florida, either in the Gulf of Mexico or the Atlantic Ocean, which will be determined by weather conditions.

• Former NASA astronaut  Peggy Whitson , Axiom Space director of human spaceflight, will command the mission.

• Whitson is joined by one private spaceflight participant and two government-sponsored astronauts:

  • Mission Pilot  John Shoffner

  • Mission Specialists  Ali Alqarni and Rayyanah Barnawi : The second and third Saudi citizens to fly to space and the first to visit the ISS, and the first Saudi Arabian government-sponsored astronauts

• The four private astronauts will launch aboard the SpaceX Crew Dragon "Freedom" capsule. 

  • It was named by NASA astronauts Kjell Lindgren, Bob Hines, and Jessica Watkins and European Space Agency astronaut Samantha Cristoforetti the members of SpaceX's Crew-4 mission in April 2022.

For the latest, visit  floridatoday.com/launchschedule .

Contact Jamie Groh at [email protected] and follow her on  Twitter at @AlteredJamie .

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This article originally appeared on Florida Today: "Go" for launch: What to know about SpaceX's Axiom-2 crewed mission