We are facing a new era of space tourism. The International Space Station will welcome the first private crew commanded by former NASA astronaut of Spanish origin, Michael López-Alegría, founder of Axiom Space and three businessmen who have each paid 55 million dollars to have a seat in the SpaceX capsule Crew Dragon that will take them to the International Space Station.
The crew is completed, therefore, with: the Canadian investor and philanthropist Mark Pathy, the American businessman Larry Connor, and the former pilot of the Israeli Air Force Eytan Stibbe, who will not only visit the mythical space station, but will also dedicate a tenth of his time to scientific, medical and technical research and experiments.
The crew will depart from pad 39A at the Kennedy Space Center at 5:17 p.m. PST, and is expected to arrive at the US space agency’s module on Saturday. The group will spend eight days on the space station, where they will perform, followed by another day to return to Earth in the same Crew Dragon capsule.
This is the first fully private mission to the International Space Station (ISS), a joint project of Russia, the United States, Canada, Japan and the European Space Agency (ESA).
For more than 21 years, NASA has supported America’s continued human presence in low-Earth orbit aboard the space station. Now, “the agency’s goal is to enable a robust commercial market in low-Earth orbit with private industry where NASA is one of many customers.”
The goal is for NASA to be able to focus on its Artemis missions to the Moon and later Mars, while continuing to use low Earth orbit as a training and testing ground for future deep space missions.
Referencia: Axiom Space
