Event: Follow SpaceX’s launch of the first private crew for a mission to the Space Station

We are changing eras with the opening of a new chapter of inhabited exploration. More than 20 years after Expedition 1 in October 2000, which kicked off the permanent occupation of the International Space Station, it is today that SpaceX is to launch the Axiom-1 (Ax-1) manned mission to the ISS. On board, Larry Connor (United States), Mark Pathy (Canada), Eytan Stibbe (Israel) and Michael López-Alegría, former astronaut of the Nasa who will act as commander. It is therefore an entirely private crew that must join the Station for a mission lasting several days. If this is not the first time that tourists have boarded and stayed on board the orbital complexthis is the first time that they are not accompanied by a professional astronaut on duty to supervise them.

The launch of the Crew Dragon, aboard a launch vehicle Falcon 9 is scheduled for 5:17 p.m. (Paris time) from launch pad 39A at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center.

If NASA authorized this mission, it is because the guarantees provided by Axiom on the seriousness of the preparation of the crew convinced it. But not only. The Ax-1 crew will be mentored by Michael López-Alegría, Vice President of Axiom Space. An old NASA acquaintance. At 63, this former NASA employee has already spent nearly 258 days in space and 10 spacewalks. He participated in three missions with the American space shuttle and made a stay in the ISS. Another acquaintance of NASA, the founder of Axiom Space, Michael Suffredini who is none other than the former head of the Space Station program at NASA from 2005 to 2015!

Three space tourists who also come to work

Thanks to the experience of these two former NASA employees, the crew was able to train and prepare in excellent conditions. Since August 2021, he has prepared at several NASA facilities, including those at the Johnson Space Center in Houston, where NASA astronauts train. The training received by each of the members of Ax-1 allowed them to familiarize themselves with the routine use of the ISS, the scientific installations on board the orbital complex and emergency procedures. They also received training from SpaceX at its facilities in Hawthorne, California. This training allowed them to familiarize themselves with the operation of the Crew Dragon capsule.

The crew of Ax-1 should stay on board the ISS for eight days. Larry Connor, Mark Pathy and Eytan Stibbe who each paid around $55 million for their stay will not just be watching Earth from the dome. With researchers and scientists, they have prepared a relatively dense program, more than a hundred hours of research and experimentation, mainly in the field of technology and medicine. They will also carry out awareness and commercial activities and carry out more personal and philanthropic projects.

As for Michael López-Alegría, who knows the place, he will focus on the Harmony module. It is indeed at this place that the first module of the Axiom segment of the ISS must moor in 2024. Two other modules and an observation dome should follow. A module, which will serve, among other things, as movie studio for the film to be shot by American actor Tom Cruise, is also planned.

The Axiom segment will be detached from the ISS in 2028 and will become an autonomous space station.

The first private crew will fly to the Space Station on April 6

Article of Remy Decourt published on 02/04/2022

Small setback for AX-1, Axiom’s first commercial mission to the International Space Station. SpaceX, which provides the transport, postponed the launch for a few days to do last-minute checks. This historic flight – it is the first entirely private crew to join and stay on board the orbital complex – will take off on April 6.

The first fully private crew to stay aboard the International Space Station will have to wait a few more days before taking off aboard a Crew Dragon from SpaceX to reach the International Space Station (ISS). Initially scheduled a few days ago, the takeoff of AX-1, that is the name of the mission, is now scheduled for April 6 at the earliest.

This mission marketed by Axiom Space has the particularity that its four crew members all leave as private. It therefore does not have any professional astronauts in service in a space agency to supervise the mission and support Axiom’s customers. That said, the crew of AX-1 will obviously not be on their own. It will be led by Michael López-Alegría, Vice President of Axiom Space. At 63, this former NASA employee has already spent nearly 258 days in space and 10 spacewalks. He participated in three missions with the American space shuttle and made a stay in the ISS.

Like “real”

Michael López-Alegría will therefore be accompanied by three crew members. There is the pilot Crew Dragon, Larry Connor, and mission specialists Mark Pathy and Eytan Stibbe. Said like that, one could think of dealing with professional astronauts from one or more space agencies! But these three private individuals are indeed space tourists and they all wanted to give meaning to their mission. They have therefore trained and prepared like the “real ones” and will carry out a research program prepared with agencies or scientists as well as philanthropic projects.

Their stay is planned to last eight days in the American segment of the Space Station. We suspect that they will not be confined to the only American modules…

With Axiom and SpaceX, the International Space Station will become trendy!

Article by Rémy Decourt published on 06/06/2021

the space tourism to the International Space Station is accelerating. After the announcement at the start of the year of a first manned commercial and tourist mission, SpaceX and Axiom Space have concluded a new agreement which provides for three other manned flights aboard the Crew Dragon to the orbital complex by the end of 2023. At the same time, Axiom is working on its own space station, the first module of which could be connected to the ISS from 2024.

Axiom Space has just signed a new launch contract with SpaceX bringing to four the number of manned missions that will be launched to the International Space Station by 2023. These missions will be carried out by the Falcon 9 and SpaceX’s Crew Dragon. Ax-1, Axiom’s first mission, announced in March 2020has already been approved by NASA and should be launched to the ISS no earlier than January 2022. Eventually, Axiom wants to offer up to two private flights to the ISS per year.

Each mission will carry three clients and a professional astronaut. For AX-1, the professional astronaut will be Michael López-Alegría. At 63, this former NASA employee has already spent nearly 258 days in space and 10 spacewalks. He participated in three missions with the American space shuttle and made a stay in the ISS. If Axiom Space did not reveal the names of the first three passengers, in addition to an Israeli millionaire, we quote actor Tom Cruise and director Doug Liman.

Founded in 2016, this start-up presents itself as a supplier of full services for orbital missions intended for private astronauts, tourists but also researchers who could board the ISS to carry out their own experiment or actors to carry out scenes of a film! Its offer includes training, transportation and mission planning.

A commercial station in development

Axiom Space is becoming a major player in the marketing and use of the orbital complex. This privatization of the ISS is encouraged by NASA. The goal of the agency and its partners is to develop a genuine economy by orbit base around the ISS, relying on the companies and start-ups of the new spaceincluding SpaceX and Axiom Space in particular.

Axiom Space has also raised more than $130 million to develop a space station that will first be attached to the ISS before becoming independent. The modules of this commercial station will be produced by Thales Alenia Spacewith a first launch as early as 2024. The first two elements to be launched are the node junction node 1 (AxN1) and the housing module (AxH). Axiom Space’s goal is to make its station autonomous and separate it from the ISS within ten years.