First fully private mission with civilian crew returns to Earth

The first fully private mission to the International Space Station (ISS) is scheduled to complete the final leg of its journey this week, ending what will be a multi-million 12-day journey.

The mission, called AX-1, was brokered by Houston, Texas-based startup Axiom Space, which books rocket rides, provides all necessary training and coordinates flights to the ISS for those who can afford it.

The mission has sparked yet another round of debate over whether the people who pay their way into space should be called “astronauts,” although it should be noted that a trip to the ISS requires a far greater investment of time and money than taking a brief trip to space. suborbital ride on a rocket built by companies like Blue Origin or Virgin Galactic.

The four crew members – Michael Lopez-Alegría, a former NASA astronaut turned Axiom employee who is running the mission; Israeli businessman Eytan Stibbe; Canadian investor Mark Pathy; and Ohio-based real estate mogul Larry Connor — are scheduled to leave the space station aboard their SpaceX Crew Dragon capsule this Tuesday at around 11:00 pm ET.

They will spend the rest of the day aboard the nearly four-meter-wide capsule as it maneuvers back to the edge of Earth’s thick atmosphere.

They are scheduled to parachute to a landing aboard their spacecraft on Wednesday afternoon, according to NASA, weather permitting.

The three paying customers completed about 15 weeks of pre-flight training. While they don’t have to worry about piloting their spacecraft, as the Crew Dragon is fully autonomous, they’ve gone through an extensive study of the capsule’s design, prepared for all kinds of emergency scenarios, and completed zero-gravity test flights to prepare for it. them into space, just as professional astronauts do.

The crew arrived at the ISS about a week ago, where they were greeted by professional astronauts already on board, including three NASA astronauts, a German astronaut and three Russian cosmonauts.

During their stay on the space station, the group maintained a regimented schedule, which included about 14 hours a day of activities, including scientific research designed by various research hospitals, universities, technology companies, and more.

They also spent a lot of time holding videoconferencing outreach events with children and students.

It is not the first time that paying customers or non-astronauts have visited the ISS, as Russia has sold seats on its Soyuz spacecraft to several wealthy thrill seekers in previous years. Last year, for example, a Russian actress and film crew visited the ISS to film part of a film at a historic premiere.

But the AX-1 is the first mission with a crew made up entirely of private citizens with no active members of a government astronaut corps on board during the voyage to and from the ISS. It is also the first time private citizens have traveled to the ISS in a US-made spacecraft.

It is unclear how much this mission cost. Axiom previously disclosed a price of $55 million per seat for a 10-day trip to the ISS, but the company declined to comment on the financial terms for that specific mission other than saying at a press conference on the ISS. last year that the price is in the “tens”. of millions.”

The mission is made possible thanks to very close coordination between Axiom, SpaceX and NASA, as the ISS is funded and operated by the government.

The space agency has revealed some details about how much it will charge for the use of its 20-year-old orbital laboratory.

The food alone costs US$ 2,000 (R$ 9,348) a day, per person, in the space. Getting supplies to and from the space station for a commercial team costs another $88,000 to $164,000 per person, per day.

For each mission, bringing in the necessary support from NASA astronauts will cost commercial customers another $5.2 million, and all the mission support and planning that NASA lends is another $4.8 million. million (R$ 22 million)