Larry Connor has participated in more than 1,000 hours of professional astronaut training, as well as Mayo Clinic instruction for the mission’s research component. That preparation, he feels, will contribute to a successful 10-day mission. In addition to the research materials, he's also bringing a few trinkets along with him to space on behalf of others.

Mayo Clinic has made important contributions to space medicine and research since the dawn of the U.S. space program, and prior to that with aeronautical research during World War II.  

Mayo Clinic experts are leading two lines of research that will be conducted during the trip and while the four astronauts of the Axiom Space flight are at the space station.  

Mayo Clinic’s groundbreaking research in cellular aging and cardiac adaptation is headed to space on the first-ever all-civilian private spaceflight to the International Space Station.