Ax-1 Private Mission to Space Station: Countdown

[Elderberry]

Ax-1 Private Mission to Space Station: Countdown

 What's News - Space & Science

#Ax1 #AxiomSpace #Axiom #ISS #NASA
On April 3, 2022, SpaceX and the private spaceflight company Axiom Space will make history with the launch of Ax-1, the first all-private mission to the International Space Station.

Ax-1 will send four private space travelers on a 10-day trip to the station to conduct science and push commercial spaceflight forward. They will fly on a SpaceX Crew Dragon capsule and Falcon 9 rocket. Its crew includes former NASA astronaut Michael López-Alegría and paying passengers  Larry Connor, Mark Pathy and Eytan Stibbe. See our full coverage of the Ax-1 mission below.
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nasa / AxiomSpace


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6_4sP90harc

[Elderberry]

The all-civilian Ax-1 crew is now on board the ISS

Interesting Engineering  By  Loukia Papadopoulos 4/10/2022

Each crew member paid a price of $55 million for a 10-day trip to the ISS.

Last Friday, SpaceX launched the first crew of all-private astronauts on a trip to the International Space Station (ISS). The crew arrived at the ISS at 10:13 a.m. EDT, on Saturday, April 9 and this marked the first all-private mission to the orbital space station, in addition to the first crewed mission from Axiom Space (Ax-1), according to a blog released by NASA on Saturday.

Although, it's not the first time paying customers have reached the ISS. (Russia has previously sold seats on its Soyuz spacecraft.) It is, however, the first time a mission is composed of a crew entirely made up of private citizens with no real astronauts. It's also the first time such a mission has taken place on a US-made spacecraft.
A very pricey trip

The crew on this mission consists of Michael Lopez-Alegría, a former NASA astronaut turned Axiom employee who is heading the mission; Israeli businessman Eytan Stibbe; American real estate magnate Larry Connor; and Canadian investor Mark Pathy.

More: https://interestingengineering.com/civilian-ax-1-crew-iss


The Axiom Space crew with the astronauts onboard the ISS

[Smokin Joe]

Well, if their return is successful, that just negated Russian threats to leave anyone stranded up there. 

[Elderberry]

All-private SpaceX astronaut mission on its way home after a week of delays

By Jackie Wattles, CNN Business 4/24/2022

https://www.cnn.com/2022/04/24/tech/spacex-ax-1-undocking-sunday-scn/index.html

The first all-private mission to the International Space Station began its return trip Sunday evening after a string of delays dragged the mission out for a week longer than expected because of weather and other inopportune circumstances.

The mission, called AX-1, was brokered by the Houston, Texas-based startup Axiom Space, which books rocket rides, provides all the necessary training, and coordinates flights to the ISS for anyone 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 Ohio-based real estate magnate Larry Connor — left the space station aboard their SpaceX Crew Dragon capsule on Sunday at 9:10 pm EST. But as had happened so often already with this mission, there was one more delay, as the capsule departed 15 minutes past the original planned departure time of 8:55 pm EST, as the capsule occupants dealt with minor communications issues.

They will spend about one day free flying through orbit before plummeting back into the atmosphere and parachuting to a splashdown landing off the coast of Florida around 1 pm ET Monday.

AX-1, which launched on April 8, was originally billed as a 10-day mission, but delays extended the mission by about a week.

More at link.

[Elderberry]

All-private SpaceX astronaut mission splashes down successfully after week of delays

By Jackie Wattles and Jennifer Korn, CNN 4/25/2022

https://edition.cnn.com/2022/04/25/tech/spacex-ax-1-splashdown-monday-scn/index.html

The first all-private mission to the International Space Station finally made its way home Monday, making a splash down landing off the coast of Florida and concluding a mission that has lasted a week longer than expected.

This mission was brokered by the Houston, Texas-based startup Axiom Space. The company books rocket rides, provides all the necessary training, and coordinates flights to the ISS for anyone who can afford it — and it hopes this is the first mission of many more to come. There were four crew members on this flight — Michael López-Alegría, a former NASA astronaut-turned-Axiom employee who is commanding the mission; and three paying customers: Israeli businessman Eytan Stibbe; Canadian investor Mark Pathy; and Ohio-based real estate magnate Larry Connor.

The splash down return is considered the most dangerous stretch of the mission. The Crew Dragon capsule was traveling at more than 17,000 miles per hour, and as it began the final leg of its descent, the Crew Dragon capsule's exterior heated up to about 3,500 degrees Fahrenheit as it sliced back into the thickest part of Earth's atmosphere. Inside the spacecraft cabin, the passengers were protected by a heat shield and the temperature should've stayed below 85 degrees Fahrenheit.

The Crew Dragon then deployed sets of parachutes as it plummeted toward the Atlantic Ocean. Rescue crews waiting near the splash down site hauled the spacecraft out of the ocean and on to a special boat, called the "Dragon's nest," where final safety checks took place before the crew disembarked.

AX-1, which launched on April 8, was originally billed as a 10-day mission, but ultimately stretched to about 17 days, 15 of which were spent on the ISS.

More at link.