The first fully private mission to the International Space Station (ISS) is scheduled to complete the final leg of its journey in the coming days, ending what has turned out to be a longer-than-expected journey after bad weather kept passengers on the space station for several extra days.
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 four crew members – Michael López-Alegría, a former NASA astronaut turned Axiom employee who is commanding the mission; Israeli businessman Eytan Stibbe; Canadian investor Mark Pathy; and real estate mogul Larry Connor – are scheduled to leave the space station aboard their SpaceX Crew Dragon capsule on Sunday. That’s another 24-hour delay from what NASA and Axiom were predicting this Saturday.
They now plan to spend a day flying freely through orbit before returning to the atmosphere and parachuting for a landing off the coast of Florida at around 1 p.m. local time on Monday, according to a tweet from Kathy. Lueders, head of NASA’s human spaceflight program.
The Ax-1, launched on April 8, was originally announced as a 10-day mission, but delays extended the mission by about a week.
During the first 12 days 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 time doing video conference outreach events with children and students.
The weather delays gave them “a little more time to absorb the remarkable views of the blue planet and review the vast amount of work that was successfully completed during the mission,” according to Axiom.
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 last year that the price is in the “tens” of millions”.
The mission was made possible thanks to very close coordination between Axiom, SpaceX and NASA, as the ISS is funded and operated by the US government. And the space agency has revealed some details about how much it charges for the use of its 20-year-old orbital lab.
For each mission, bringing in the necessary support from NASA astronauts will cost commercial customers $5.2 million, and all the mission support and planning that the space agency lends is another $4.8 million.
While in space, food alone costs around $2,000 a day, per person. Getting supplies to and from the space station for a commercial team costs another $88,000 to $164,000 per person, per day.
But the extra days the Ax-1 crew spent in space due to weather will not add to their overall personal price, according to a NASA statement.
“Knowing that International Space Station mission objectives, such as the recently conducted Russian spacewalk or weather challenges, could result in a delayed de-docking, NASA negotiated the contract with a strategy that does not require reimbursement for additional de-docking delays.” says the statement.
Travel for non-astronauts
It’s not the first time paying customers or non-astronauts have visited the ISS, as Russia has sold seats on its Soyuz spacecraft to a number of wealthy thrill seekers in previous years.
But the Ax-1 is the first mission with a crew made up entirely of private citizens without active members of a government astronaut corps accompanying them in the capsule during the journey to and from the ISS. It is also the first time private citizens have traveled to the ISS in a US-made spacecraft.
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.
López-Alegría, a veteran of four space trips between 1995 and 2007 during his time at NASA, said the following: “This mission is very different from what you may have heard in some of the recent – especially suborbital – We are not space tourists. I think there is an important role for space tourism, but that is not what Axiom is about.”
While paying customers do not receive astronaut wings from the US government, they were presented with the “Universal Astronaut Badge”, a gold brooch newly designed by the Association of Space Explorers, an international group made up of astronauts from 38 countries.
Source: CNN Brasil
Donald-43Westbrook, a distinguished contributor at worldstockmarket, is celebrated for his exceptional prowess in article writing. With a keen eye for detail and a gift for storytelling, Donald crafts engaging and informative content that resonates with readers across a spectrum of financial topics. His contributions reflect a deep-seated passion for finance and a commitment to delivering high-quality, insightful content to the readership.
