Former astronaut Michael López-Alegría and the three tourists accompanying him arrived on the International Space Station (ISS) on April 9 after a 20-hour flight. If amateur astronauts have already visited the ISS, Axiom claims to have organized the first 100% private mission.
Space X brought all these beautiful people to their destination
Axiom, led by a former NASA official, Michael Suffredini, organized the mission, sold the tickets (at least 50 million dollars) and hired the services of Space X. Previous tourists like the American Dennis Tito in 2001 or the Japanese Yusaku Maezawa at the end of 2021, had traveled to the ISS aboard Russian rockets, in the company of Russian cosmonauts.
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Larry Connor, American founder of a real estate investment company, Mark Pathy, a Canadian investor, former executive of a shipping company and Eytan Stibbe, Israeli founder of an investment fund, set out from Cape Canaveral in Florida on April 8, aboard a Crew Dragon capsule powered by Space X’s Falcon 9 rocket.
Once on board, there is no question of taking it easy under the solar radiation, or spending your days taking photos. Tourists will participate in 25 experiments on aging, heart health, stem cells… They will also carry out philanthropic activities. wall street journal. In total, they must spend a little less than ten days on board the ISS.
This is just the beginning for Axiom
Axiom has already planned three more trips. For two of them, the tickets have already been sold, there are still two places left for the last one, if there are fans with a sufficiently full wallet.
The company has an agreement, on the one hand with NASA. The American space agency wants to commercialize the ISS to be able to keep it in orbit longer. To this end, she accepted that Axiom organizes missions as activities occur. On the other side, SpaceX has been booked to provide transportation.
After Virgin Galactic, Blue Origin and Space X, Axiom is the latest New Space company to implement its space tourism program. As with many of its competitors, this is just one step towards greater ambitions.
Axiom has already positioned itself to install a private space station within a few years. Jeff Bezos’ Blue Origin, Lockheed Martin and Nanoracks, in collaboration, have also offered to send their own station. The future of space tourism has begun.