Elon Musk Retweets Striking Ax-2 Mission Launch Picture To Wish Followers A 'Happy Independence Day'

SpaceX CEO Elon Musk on Tuesday retweeted a picture of its Falcon 9 rocket launching Ax-2 mission to the International Space Station (ISS) to wish Twitterati on independence day.

The picture, by spaceflight photographer John Kraus, shows the Falcon 9 taking off in the backdrop of a waving American flag. Kraus used a Nikon Z9 camera and 800mm lens to capture the photograph.

What Happened: Former NASA astronaut Peggy Whitson who led the mission’s four-member crew also retweeted the photograph. “It was fitting that Dragon Freedom was on top of that Falcon 9…” she wrote while adding that it was ‘an exhilarating feeling of freedom’ for the crew as they left Earth. Ax-2 was Axiom Space’s second private astronaut mission to the ISS.

SpaceX launched Ax-2 to the ISS on May 21st. The four-member crew of Peggy Whitson, John Shoffner, Ali Alqarni, and Rayyanah Barnawi spent 10 days in Space conducting research experiments and returned to Earth on May 30 aboard the SpaceX Dragon spacecraft named Freedom.

Why It Matters: For Axiom, the mission served as a run-up to its longer-term aim to have an Axiom Station ready to operate as the ISS’ privately owned successor by 2028. The third private astronaut mission, the Ax-3, is expected to launch no earlier than November 2023 from Kennedy Space Center in Florida.

Meanwhile, for SpaceX's Dragon spacecraft, the mission marked its 10th human spaceflight. 

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