A former Israeli fighter pilot, American technology entrepreneur and Canadian investor will be part of the crew of the first completely private orbital space mission. The three men are paying a whopping $ 55 million each to board the SpaceX rocket for an eight-day visit to the International Space Station, organized by Houston-based spaceflight company Axiom .
“All of these people are very involved and doing it for a kind for the development of their communities and countries, so we couldn’t be happier with this first team because of their energy and interest, ”Said Axiom chief executive and President Mike Suffredini told Communal Media. The mission will be led by former NASA astronaut Michael Lopez-Alegria, who is now working for the Axiom space.
What do we know about the mission?
The Axiom Mission 1 (AX 1) flight is being organized under a commercial agreement with NASA. While private citizens have traveled to space before, mission AX 1 is the first to use a commercially built spacecraft, the SpaceX Dragon 2, famous for flying its first two crews to the ISS at the end of last year.
Elon Musks’ SpaceX is expected to launch the private team earlier than in January next year. After taking off from Cape Canaveral in Florida, the team will take about a day or two to reach the ISS and go on to spend eight days there, AP said.
But Axiom insists the mission is not a vacation at all. The three men will take part in research and philanthropic projects with astronauts from around the world already stationed at the ISS.
What training will the team receive?
Axiom Suffredini chief executive told AP that the private astronauts must go through medical tests and also go through 15 weeks of hard training before going on a space trip.
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Which three are paying for a flight to the space station?
Larry Connor
The American real estate investor and technology entrepreneur is the head of Connor Group, an Ohio-based real estate company valued at more than $ 3 billion in assets. The 70-year-old is the second oldest person to fly into space and will be a capsule pilot under Lopez-Alegria.
According to Axiom, it collaborates with the Mayo Clinic and the Cleveland Clinic on research projects at the ISS. He also plans to give tuition lessons to students at Dayton Early College Academy in his hometown of Dayton, Ohio.
Marc Pathy
Pathy, 50, is the CEO and Chairman of MAVRIK Corp., a private investment and financing company. Canada is also chairman of the board of Stingray Group, a Montreal-based music company. An active philanthropist, he serves on the board of the Pathy Family Foundation and is also a board member of both Dans la Rue and the Montreal Children’s Hospital Trust. He will be the 11th Canadian astronaut in space.
Pathy is collaborating with the Canadian Space Agency and Montreal Children’s Hospital, which is helping to identify health-related research projects that could be undertaken during the mission, Axiom said in a statement.
Stibbe Eytan
Stibbe, founder of Vital Capital Fund and a former combat pilot, is the second Israeli to be launched into space. He is also the founder and board member of the Center for African Studies at Ben-Gurion University and is on the board of several NGOs working specifically to develop education, arts and culture.
The first Israeli to go into space was Ilan Ramon, who died aboard the Columbia space shuttle, which crashed when he returned into the atmosphere in 2003. Ramon was a good personal friend of Stibbe.
Who is the leader of the mission Michael Lopez-Alegria?
The former Spanish astronaut has taken part in four space missions and logged over 257 days in space. He was a member of the NASA astronaut group for more than two decades. It has performed 10 spacewalks, a total of 67 hours and 40 minutes of Extravehicular Activity (EVA), according to NASA.
Lopez-Alegria joined Axiom in 2017 and now serves as the company’s Vice President of Business Development.
Is this the first time civilians have been launched into space?
No, private civilians have previously traveled to the space station. Since 2001, Russia has been selling flights to the ISS to wealthy businessmen around the world. They flew aboard the Russian Soyuz aircraft with professional cosmonauts and NASA astronauts.
Until 2019, NASA did not allow ordinary citizens to be launched into space from American soil. He finally reiterated his position, saying the missions would help stimulate growth in the commercial space industry, the Washington Post reported.
Several other space companies, including Jeff Bezos ‘Blue Origin and Richard Branson’ s Virgin Galactic, also plan to pay customers to the space soon. But the flights up and down only last minutes, AP said.