NASA, Axiom announce first private astronaut mission to ISS

NASA and the aerospace startup Axiom Space on Monday, May 10, 2021, announced that the duo has signed up an order to send four people in a first private astronaut mission to the International Space Station (ISS) by January 2022. The people selected for the launch are not currently working as professional astronauts.

First private astronaut mission: Key points

•The first private astronaut mission, known as the AX-1 mission, will be launched from NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida. The group of private astronauts will travel to the International Space Station (ISS) to spend eight days aboard the space lab orbiting Earth.

•Axiom’s Vice President, former NASA astronaut Michael Lopez-Alegria will command the crew. Along with him, former Israeli fighter pilot Eytan Stibbe, Canadian investor Mark Pathy, and real estate investor Larry Connor will be part of the mission.

•The Axiom Mission 1 (AX-1) aims to launch this group of men into orbit on one of the Crew Dragon spaceships of SpaceX.

•Each of the four private astronauts is paying $55 million to be part of the mission. NASA is awaiting medical reviews of each before approving them.

•All the four private astronauts of the AX-1 crew will undergo a ‘serious training’ that would comprise of a parabolic plane flight to imitate zero gravity and centrifuge training to stimulate a launch. They will go through Crew Dragon training and learn about ISS systems.

•They will learn how to use toilets on the ISS and the spaceship and understand how Crew Dragon docks to the ISS, and how to sleep in space.

•They will also prepare for the scientific research they will be conducting on the space station. NASA is paying $1.69 million to Axiom to bring scientific samples from the space station back to Earth in cold storage.

AX-1 mission: Significance

•The AX-1 mission is the first private astronaut mission that would launch private citizens to the International Space Station. With the success of this mission, Axiom plans to send private astronauts to the space station twice a year.

•The private astronaut missions are a part of NASA’s plan to stimulate demand for commercial human spaceflight services and develop a commercial economy in low-Earth orbit.

•These missions will aid in realizing NASA’s goal of a commercial alternative to conduct research on the effects of spaceflights on humans, technology development in space, and in-flight crew testing, even after when NASA brings down ISS by 2030.