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A flight composed only of civilians which marks a historic turning point in the history of space tourism.
The AX-1 mission is scheduled to take off today at 11:17 a.m. in Florida (5:17 p.m. Paris time). The all-civilian crew will take off aboard SpaceX’s Crew Dragon capsule chartered by commercial company Axiom.
This is the first manned flight to the ISS that will not include any astronauts. The crew will be composed of 3 space novices:
- Canadian investor Mark Pathy
- American real estate investor Larry Connor
- former Israeli Air Force pilot Eytan Stibbe.
The fourth crew member and mission commander is Michael López-Alegría, vice president of Axiom, a former NASA astronaut who has previously flown four missions in space. If you wanted to join a future mission, know that the 3 “tourists” had to pay 55 million dollars each to be part of the trip.
Space tourism is accelerating
This mission is part of the rapid development of space tourism. More and more companies like SpaceX, Blue Origin or Virgin Galactic have proven that they are capable of sending crews into orbit.
As for Axiom, the company plans to organize three additional missions to the ISS in order to accumulate experience in order to subsequently create a fleet of commercial space stations. The goal of the maneuver is to “make the space more accessible to everyone” (or at least to those who have a well-stocked wallet at first).
A mission for many turns
This new kind of mission marks major turning points for the various companies involved. For SpaceX, it is a question of opening up its Crew Dragon shuttle, specifically developed for NASA missions, to private companies and thus taking advantage of the knowledge accumulated with the agency to launch a commercial activity.
For NASA, it is a question of opening the ISS to commercial activities without depending on the Russian Soyuz shuttles. It was already possible for wealthy tourists to visit the station, but the impossibility of using a private (or American) shuttle hampered the opening of the station.
International Space Station. ©gettyimages
NASA indicates that it will be possible to use the facilities for commercial purposes such as filming films or advertisements (Tom Cruise already having a film project in the pipeline). Of course, this use will be billed by NASA. The (compulsory) use of the station’s life support system and toilets will cost $11,250 per day per person, while provisions, medical supplies and exercise equipment will cost double that.
A change in NASA policy which constitutes a real opportunity for the Axiom company which intends, from 2024, to attach a test module to the ISS before making it independent with the aim of creating its own space station.
A 10 day mission
Unlike the usual tourist flights where customers train for a few hours in order to spend a few minutes in space, the members of the Ax-1 mission received much more advanced training (from 750 to more than 1,000 hours depending on the role each) to spend 10 days in space.
During the 8 days on board the ISS, the four crew members will carry out 25 scientific experiments for a total of one hundred hours on various subjects such as human psychology or a demonstration of a bidirectional 3D hologram thanks to a Microsoft’s HoloLens.
They will primarily reside in the US portion of the station although they will enter the Russian portion by invitation as well. Despite the current tensions, the two countries continue to work together to maintain operations on board the ISS.
If the mission is successful, NASA could therefore benefit from a new source of income for the station and space would become accessible to a much greater number of people.