SpaceX launches the Axiom Ax-1, the first private crew to the ISS, $55 million each per seat.
- Karthik Naren
- Apr 8, 2022
- 7 min read
Axiom private mission takes Chief NASA Astronaut and three tourist/researchers to space.
April 8, 2022; A SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket (Booster; B1067.5) launched the Crew Dragon Endeavor C206 spacecraft, for Axiom Space's Ax-1 mission to the International Space Station, from Launch Complex 39A (LC-39A) at NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida, today at 15:17 UTC (11 :17 EDT). The crew includes commander Michael López-Alegría, pilot Larry Connor and mission specialists Eytan Stibbe and Mark Pathy. Endeavor C206 is scheduled to dock with the space station's PMA-3 Zenith(Space facing port) tomorrow, April 9, at around 10:45 UTC (06:45 EDT). Following the stage separation, the first stage 'core' of Falcon 9 (B1062) landed on the droneship “A Shortfall of Gravitas”, stationed in the Atlantic Ocean. Falcon 9's first stage (B1062) previously flew five missions: GPS III Space Vehicle 04 (GPS III SV04), GPS III SV05, Inspiration4 and a batch of Starlink satellites.
The pre-launch press previously claimed that Connor, Stibbe and Pathy paid $55 million each for the opportunity to go to the ISS. Lopez-Alegria flies at the expense of Axiom Space, of which he is vice president and chief astronaut. It is expected that after docking the spacecraft with the ISS, scheduled for 7:45 am EDT on Saturday, the crew will remain aboard the space station for eight days.
This launch makes it 14 people are in orbit today: on Ax-1, Lopez-Alegria, Connor, Stibbe, Pathy; on the ISS: Chari, Marshburn, Maurer, Barron, Artemyev, Matveyev, Korsakov; and on the Tiangong space station, Zhai Zhigang, Wang Yaping and Ye Guangfu.
During the 10-day mission, eight of which will be spent aboard the ISS, the crew will perform more than 25 science experiments and technology demonstrations designed for the microgravity environment
Significant milestone by Ax-1 mission:
First flight by a fully private crew to the space station
First manned mission to be launched on a 2 stage liquid fuel rocket that will make its 5th flight
First manned mission to be launched on a third flight of a Crew Dragon
First private spacecraft pilot to go to the space station (Larry Connor)
Second spaceflight of an Israeli astronaut (Eitan Stibbe), since shuttle disaster
Fifth space mission by the ship's commander, Michael Lopez-Alegria.
Furthermore, if all goes according to schedule and the next manned mission (Crew-4) launches in 13 days, this will be the shortest turnaround between two U.S. manned flights since the Gemini 7 and 6A missions in 1965. A similar record for the space shuttle, which was 16 days between flights in 1986 and 1995, will also be surpassed.
Ax-1 Crew Manifest and Research Experiments
Michael López-Alegría is the chief astronaut of Axiom Space and commander of the Ax-1 mission. He has flown four times into space, flown the shuttle missions STS-73, STS-92 and STS-113, and served as Commander of ISS Expedition 14, flying to the ISS aboard the Russian Soyuz TMA-9 spacecraft. He holds NASA records for most extravehicular activities (EVA) or “spacewalks” and cumulative EVA time (67 hours and 40 minutes). In 2021, he was inducted into the US Astronaut Hall of Fame. His work on the Ax-1 "draws on his experience in traditional space exploration to help usher in a new era of private manned spaceflight." Previously, López-Alegría was President of the Federation of Commercial Space Flights and served on various advisory boards and committees, including the NASA Advisory Board's Exploration and Human Operations Committee, the FAA's Commercial Space Transport Advisory Committee and is Chair of the ASTM International Committee on Commercial Space Flight. He is also the past president of the Association of Space Explorers. López-Alegría was born in Madrid, Spain, and emigrated to the United States with his family. His son Nicolas (Nico) López-Alegría is currently working on a documentary about his mission.
Larry Connor | Ax-1 Pilot
Larry Connor is an entrepreneur, non-profit activist investor and the Ax-1 Pilot. Through the Ax-1 mission, Connor will become the first private pilot to reach the ISS and the first human to reach the deepest ocean depths and outer space within one year. Connor's main area of research will be around the impact of space travel on senescent cells (cells that have irreversibly stopped dividing but haven't died) and heart health. This cell type has been linked to several age-related diseases. On Earth, Connor's research tends to focus on pre- and post-mission MRIs to study the effects of the spaceflight environment on spinal and brain tissue.
Mark Pathy | Ax-1 Mission Specialist
Mark Pathy is an entrepreneur, investor and philanthropist as well as a Mission Specialist on Axiom Space’s Ax-1 mission. Pathy is currently the Chief Executive Officer and Chairman of Montreal-based MAVRIK, a privately-owned investment and financing company he founded that focuses on innovation and social impact. Through Ax-1 mission, Pathy will become Canada’s 2nd private astronaut and the 12th Canadian to go to space.
Pathy will work in partnership with six Canadian universities and two tech startups, including research into bi-directional holotransport – a mixed reality app for special lenses that has bi-directional 3D projections like a hologram to communicate. He will also conduct Earth observations, research Space Flight Associated Neuro-Ocular Syndrome (a change in visual sharpness experienced by many astronauts) and other projects with different universities.
Eytan Stibbe | Ax-1 Mission Specialist
Eytan Stibbe (Hebrew; שטיב א) is an impact investor, philanthropist, and a mission specialist on the Ax-1 mission to the International Space Station. In collaboration with the Ramon Foundation, the Israel Space Agency, the Ministry of Innovation, Science and Technology, and the Ministry of Education, Stibbe will fly to the ISS under the “Rakia” banner and the maxim "There is no dream beyond reach’’
The Israeli startup firm Brain.Space joins 30 experiments that will take part in the Rakia Mission to the ISS.
Three of the four astronauts -- including Eytan Stibbe -- will wear a special electroencephalogram (EEG)-enabled helmet made by Brain.Space; The helmet, which has 460 airbrushes that connect to the scalp, and perform a number of tasks for 20 minutes a day, during which data will be uploaded to a laptop on the space station. The tasks include a "visual oddball" one that the company says has been effective in detecting abnormal brain dynamics. Similar studies using these tasks have been completed on Earth and after the mission, Brain.Space will compare the EEG data to see the differences in brain activity between Earth and space. It noted that such experiments are needed since long-term space exploration and "off-world living are within grasp."
NASA's Contract with Axiom Space
Keynotes
The NASA deal is just one part of the arrangement.
The agreement covers items such as food and water for the crew, astronauts' time to prepare the station for the spacecraft's visit and other costs associated with the accommodation, NASA and Axiom representatives said during a press conference.
The full text of the agreement has not been made available to the public.
The costs built into the deal were determined in 2019, when NASA first announced that it would be willing to host up to two private astronaut flights to the station per year, each for up to 30 days.
At the time, NASA officials estimated that a visit could cost about $35,000 a day.
The Ax-1 will be the only mission to fly at these 'bargain fees'.
At the end of last April, NASA update its prices for visits to the space station.
Under the new policy; cargo, food, and supply charges for the same mission would be more than $2.5 million at the lower end of the quoted cost ranges, plus $10 million in per-mission fees.
“We're seeing a lot of interest in private astronaut missions,” Angela Hart, Low-Earth orbit commercial development manager at Johnson Space Center in Houston, said during a news conference.
“Right now, demand outstrips what we really believe will be opportunities at the station,” she said, specifying that the lack of balance between supply and demand was the reason the agency updated its procedure for visiting trade missions in order to make it clear time on the space station “is a limited resource”.
The development of commercial destinations in Earth orbit is one of five elements of NASA's plan to open the Space Station to new commercial and marketing opportunities. Other elements of the plan include efforts to make station resources and crew available for commercial use through a new pricing policy; allow private astronaut missions to the station; seek opportunities to stimulate long-term, sustainable demand for these services; and quantify NASA's long-term demand for Low-Earth orbit activities.
"Axiom's work to develop a 'commercial destination' in space is a critical step for NASA to meet its long-term needs for astronaut training, scientific research and in-orbit technology demonstrations," the NASA administrator said at the time. , Jim Bridenstine. "We are transforming the way the agency works with industry to benefit the global economy and advance space exploration."
The agency will continue to need low-orbit microgravity research and testing to enable future missions to the Moon and Mars, including the 'first woman and next man' arrival on the Moon with the Artemis III mission as part of the agency's lunar exploration.
Axiom is looking at ways to reduce the cost of building a private space station. CEO Michael Suffredini showed off his company's mockup of a toilet that can extract water from urine for reuse in space. It would cost about $3 billion, compared to the $100 billion it cost to build the International Space Station.
The quartet is the first fully private crew to visit the International Space Station; previous private astronauts have flown as one or two individuals accompanied by government, state space agency astronauts conducting a routine mission. Axiom has chosen, for each flight it organizes, to have a retired astronaut as commander.
Meanwhile, SpaceX confirms that it is ready to launch the Crew-4 (USCV-4) mission Freedom spacecraft a few days after the Ax-1 spacecraft lands. Crew-3 will end their mission in may, after a 5 day change with Crew-4, and return, followed by launch of Boeing's redo of OFT-2 with Starliner spacecraft demo mission, and Artemis-1. it will be busy task for NASA and its Partners, on bringing the humans back to the moon and establishing the goal of Commercial space station and researches.
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