A rocket launched on April 8, holding four people, a former NASA astronaut and three civilians who paid for the ride. As part of SpaceX’s Axiom-1 mission, Axiom Space sent the civilian passengers to the International Space Station (ISS). They arrived at the ISS early Saturday morning.
Axiom Space is a company based in Houston striving to lead the way in commercial spaceflight. The International Space Station has been a worldwide effort divided into different sections built by various countries. According to The New York Times, the largest sections belong to Russia and the United States.
Per Fox 4, this marks the first mission to travel to the ISS for Axiom Space. The spacecraft, called the Dragon Endeavor, took off at the Launch Complex 39A around 11:17 a.m. from the Kennedy Space Center, located on Merritt Island, Florida.
People traveled from Canada and throughout the United States to the Jetty Park Campground in Cape Canaveral, Fla., to watch the rocket launch.
David Lane, a witness originally from New Hampshire, said, “It’s one of those things, you could see it a million times, and it just gets better.”
As liftoff took place, mission control said, “Godspeed, fellas. Let’s go have some fun.”
The spacecraft took approximately 20.5 hours to reach the ISS. The craft is not owned by NASA, meaning the passengers are on their own until they arrive at the space station. Axiom Space and SpaceX are the entities in charge of the mission.
Former NASA astronaut, who now serves as Director of Human Spaceflight for Axiom Space, Peggy Whitson, said, “The crew is very well trained; they’ve spent many hundreds of hours prepping for this flight.”
It is estimated that the three private citizens onboard the spacecraft spent around fifty-five million dollars total for their seats, although this mission is not considered a tourist attraction.
The mission will consist of twenty-five science experiments, observing how the human brain behaves in outer space and other topics like stem cells, aging, and heart health. The civilian astronauts will be in outer space for over one week, eight days on the ISS, and ten days in orbit.
The Operations Director for Axiom Space, Derek Hassmann, said, “It’s been a year and a half or so of very hard work since we’ve been designing the mission, essentially from scratch, doing something that’s never been done before in exactly this way. It’s very rewarding.”
The passengers on this flight are not government space flyers.
Former NASA astronaut Michael Lopez-Alegria is acting as the Commander of the mission. He was involved in missions STS-73, STS-92, and STS-113. He was the Commander of ISS Expedition 14 when he rode on the Soyuz TMA-9 going to and from the ISS. Lopez-Alegria has received the most Extravehicular Activities (EVA) for NASA, completing ten. EVA is the formal term that colloquially means “spacewalks.”
Lopez-Alegria holds the record for cumulative EVA time, completing sixty-seven hours and forty minutes. He was also inducted into the U.S. Astronaut Hall of Fame in 2021. Lopez-Alegria now serves as the Vice President of Business Development for Axiom Space. He did not have to pay for this mission personally.
The three private civilian astronauts onboard are Larry Connor, Mark Pathy, and Eytan Stibbe.
Connor is the mission’s pilot. He is an entrepreneur and a non-profit activist investor. With this mission, he will become the first private pilot to travel to the ISS and the first to travel to outer space and the deepest part of the ocean in one full year. Connor is the founder of the real estate investment firm called The Connor Group and the founder of two other companies based on technology. He is involved in the non-profit organizations The Connor Group Kids & Community Partners and The Greater Dayton School.
Pathy is an investor, entrepreneur, and philanthropist acting as a Mission Specialist for the flight. He is the Founder and CEO of Montreal-based company MAVRIK, a finance and investment business. Pathy is also a member of the Pathy Family Foundation, Dans La Rue, and the Montreal Children’s Hospital Foundation.
Stribbe is a philanthropist and an impact investor acting as a Mission Specialist onboard the Dragon Endeavor. While he is at the ISS, he will conduct science experiments, artistic activities, and educational research. Stribbe is the founding partner of the Vital Capital Impact investment fund. He used to be a fighter pilot with Israel Air Force (IAF) and is the second Israelian to reach outer space.
The President and CEO of Axiom, Michael Suffredini, said, “This really does represent the first step, where a bunch of individuals who want to do something meaningful in low Earth orbit (LEO) that aren’t members of a government are able to take this opportunity.”
