The Axiom Mission 2 (Ax-2) launch will carry a variety of research from the MIT Media Lab to the International Space Station (ISS) on Sunday, May 21, 2023 at 5:37 pm EDT from NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida. MIT Media Lab director Dava Newman notes, "This is really an amazing opportunity for students to get flight mission experience on parabolic and suborbital flights, on the ISS, as part of the Space Exploration Initiative (SEI) at the Media Lab!"

Watch the launch replay:
The video below starts at t-minus 5 minutes to launch. Watch the final preparations, launch, and capsule entering Earth's orbit.

The Axiom Mission 2 (Ax-2) astronauts are part of the latest class of space pioneers and Axiom Space's next crew to expand access to the International Space Station (ISS) and low-Earth orbit. Aboard the orbiting laboratory, the four-person, multinational crew will conduct extensive research, investigate novel technologies, and engage with audiences around the world as champions of science, technology, engineering, the arts, and mathematics.                 

Watch a recent press conference on the flight featuring MIT Media Lab director Dava Newman:

One of the projects on the flight is the Gravity Loading Countermeasure Skinsuit, which will undergo technological demonstration and physiological investigation by the Axiom-2 crew. The Skinsuit is an innovative intravehicular activity suit designed to mitigate some of the physiological effects of microgravity; the system is intended to supplement exercise during future missions to the moon, and eventually, to Mars. The Skinsuit team is sponsored by the MIT Media Lab's Space Exploration Initiative (SEI) and led by Rachel Bellisle, PhD candidate in the Harvard-MIT Program in Health Sciences and Technology (HST) and a Draper Scholar, and Dava Newman, director of the MIT Media Lab. 

Also on the flight will be the Humanity United with MIT Art and Nanotechnology in Space (HUMANS) nanowafer—a record of messages in over 64 unique languages from stargazers around the world, symbolizing a declaration that space is a place for us all, and that our exploration of the cosmos is a global endeavor, not a national one. Learn more about this project and the cross-departmental team behind it in a recent MIT News article.