![]() There are three paying customers on this flight. “Axiom Space does not disclose financial terms,” Axiom spokesperson Bettina Inclan told CNN Buisness via email.) ![]() Though previously disclosed prices indicated a trip to the ISS is $55 million per seat, Axiom declined to confirm that figure this week. It’s not clear how much these trips cost the customer. Axiom hopes to make these flights a regular occurrence, as NASA agreed a few years ago to open up the ISS to space tourism and other commercial ventures. Courtesy Axiom SpaceĪxiom serves as an intermediary between paying customers who want to take a multimillion-dollar thrill ride to space, booking flights with SpaceX, handling negotiations with NASA, and taking over the training for the would-be space travelers. He left the space agency in 2012, and he joined Axiom a few years later with the aim of going back to space - but as a private astronaut rather than an official member of the corps. Lopez-Alegría, 63, took of four trips to space between 19 during his time with NASA. The AX-1 mission is also only the second space tourism flight for SpaceX, following up the September 2021 launch of four private citizens on a three-day, freeflying trip through orbit that traveled even higher than the ISS.ĭuring their eight-day stay on the space station, the AX-1 crew will conduct some science experiments, break bread with the professional astronauts already on board the football-field sized space station, and enjoy sweeping views of our home planet whisking by down below. The Ax-1 mission will be the first private astronaut mission to the International Space Station. And it’s the first of what Axiom, the company that organized and brokered this mission with SpaceX, hopes will be many similar flights for anyone who can afford it.Ī SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket with the company's Crew Dragon spacecraft is seen at sunrise on the launch pad at Launch Complex 39A as preparations continue for Axiom Mission 1, on Thursday, April 7, 2022, at NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida. This mission, called AX-1, will mark the first time in history that private citizens, or otherwise non-professional astronauts, will launch to the ISS from US soil. The capsule rides to orbit on top of one of SpaceX’s 230-foot-tall Falcon 9 rockets. They’ll ride inside a SpaceX Crew Dragon capsule, the same capsule that SpaceX has used to carry NASA astronauts to the ISS already. ![]() The passengers on this trip - which includes former NASA astronaut Michael Lopez-Alegría, who will command the mission as an Axiom employee, and three paying customers - are slated to take off from Kennedy Space Center in Florida on Friday at 11:17 am ET. What to know about Axiom Space, the company behind the first all-private mission to the ISS *** Note 3: Flights with the orbiter attached to the SCA for the duration, but both crewed and powered to test crew procedures and orbiter systems.Ax-1 Crew (left to right) Larry Connor, Mark Pathy, Michael López-Alegría, and Eytan Stibbe. ** Note 2: The durations listed count only the orbiter free-flight time, and not total time aloft along with airborne time atop of the 747 SCA. These were atmospheric only, non-spaceflight tests from a Boeing 747 Shuttle Carrier Aircraft, both with the orbiter attached and for a series of drop-test flights. * Note 1: In this year, Approach and Landing Tests (ALT) were accomplished. STS-61-A in 1985 is the only flight to have both launched and landed with a crew of eight, and STS-71 in 1995 is the only other flight to have landed with a crew of eight. Only two flights have carried more than seven crew members for either launch or landing. They did not have specific crew roles, but are listed in the Payload Specialist columns for reasons of space. Names of astronauts returning from the Mir or ISS on the Space Shuttle are shown in italics.
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