Axiom Ax-1 private mission lands on Ocean

Ax-1 C206 Endeavour brought four astronauts after 17-day stay in earth orbit, successfully completing the first all-private astronaut mission to ISS

Ax-1 Splashdown (Credit: SpaceX)

25 April 2022 - The Axiom Mission 1 (Ax-1) crew and the SpaceX Dragon spacecraft safely splashed down near Jacksonville, off the coast of Florida, at 1:06 p.m. EDT (1706 UTC), Monday, April 25. A SpaceX's support ship "Megan" positioned at recovery zone did the rescue of the capsule and the astronauts from the Ocean. The crew included former NASA astronaut and Axiom vice president Michael Lopez-Alegria, American businessman and Pilot Larry Connor, Canadian investor Mark Pathy and Israeli businessman Eytan Stibbe. The 17-day mission, named Ax-1, was the first purely commercial flight to the International Space Station, without representatives of government entities., successfully demonstrating Axiom Space’s ability to integrate with the ISS and conduct useful research.  

Capsule descending deployed the main parachutes, IR view (Credit; SpaceX)

Ax-1 crew extraction from Dragon spacecraft (Credit: SpaceX)

Support ship "Megan" rescues Ax-1 Dragon C206 (Credit: SpaceX)

During their 17-day mission, Ax-1 supported 26 science payloads and technology demonstrations that had been curated with leading academic and research partners around the globe, including the Mayo Clinic, Montreal Children’s Hospital, Cleveland Clinic, and the Ramon Foundation, as well as research investigations from Axiom’s partners such as studying self-assembling technology for future space habitats, devices to purify the air on space stations, and more…, The Axiom astronauts served as research subjects to better understand the impacts of microgravity on the human body, as well as methods for engaging with Close ones on Earth during space travel; and  the crew shared the excitement of expanded access to space with a new generation of space explorers, participating in over 30 STEAM (science, technology, engineering, art and math) engagements. Outreach efforts were conducted in Multilingual to the Mass Media.

Ax-1 is the first of several planned Axiom missions to the ISS and is an important step for Axiom Station, the first commercial space station that will serve as a global academic and commercial hub. The success of Ax-1 provides valuable insight as Axiom Space works toward Axiom Mission 2 (Ax-2), the details of which Axiom Space is negotiating with NASA. 

“The success of this first private astronaut mission to the International Space Station is an important step in opening opportunities for space travellers and achieving NASA’s goal of leveraging commercial business off the planet in low-Earth orbit,”

“This progress has been made possible by NASA’s work with private industry – especially the Commercial Crew Program. I’m incredibly proud of the NASA, SpaceX, and Axiom teams for safely completing this landmark mission. Welcome home, Ax-1!”  said NASA Administrator Bill Nelson.