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ISS: Axiom-1 launched as the first purely commercial mission to the International Space Station

2022-04-08T16:22:16.158Z


They are said to be paying 50 million euros for the flight, but they don't want to be seen as space tourists: Four guests have started the first completely privately financed mission to the International Space Station.


Enlarge image

Lift off: Falcon 9 rocket after launch from Kennedy Space Center in Cape Canaveral

Photo: THOM BAUR / REUTERS

The first fully privately organized flight to the International Space Station (ISS) took off from the US spaceport at Cape Canaveral in Florida on Friday.

A SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket is set to carry three wealthy businessmen and a former NASA astronaut aboard a Dragon capsule.

The four men are to stay on board the ISS for eight days and carry out a series of experiments.

The US agency Nasa showed pictures of the launch of the rocket late Friday afternoon European time.

The three paying crew members of Mission Ax-1 are US real estate investor Larry Connor, Canadian businessman Mark Pathy and former Israeli fighter pilot and entrepreneur Eytan Stibbe.

According to media reports, they are said to have each paid 55 million dollars (50 million euros) for the flight.

Commander is former NASA astronaut Michael López-Alegría.

The flight is organized by the US space company Axiom Space.

Other private individuals were already there

The men will meet German astronaut Matthias Maurer on the ISS.

They are to carry out around 25 experiments on board the space station.

They therefore reject the term "space tourists" for themselves.

Rather, Larry Connor spoke of "private astronauts."

In the past, private individuals have repeatedly visited the ISS.

Just last year, a Russian film crew flew to film the space station, as did Japanese billionaire Yusaku Maezawa.

However, they use Soyuz rockets from the Russian space agency Roskosmos, as did NASA astronaut Mark Vande Hei at the end of March for the return to Earth together with two Russian colleagues – despite all the tensions caused by the Ukraine war.

With the SpaceX rockets, the USA has had its own capacity again since 2020 to reach the ISS without Russian help.

However, this was not available at short notice.

For Friday's flight, Axiom Space partnered with Tesla founder Elon Musk's SpaceX.

The two companies have agreed on a total of four missions.

The US space agency Nasa has already approved the second Ax-2 mission.

Axiom Space sees the missions as the first steps towards a larger goal: building a private space station.

According to the company, the first module is scheduled to go into space in 2024.

It will initially dock as a new segment on the ISS.

When the ISS is decommissioned towards the end of the decade, it will remain in space.

Nasa wants to leave the so-called near-earth orbit to the private sector in the long term, which is to operate space stations there for research and business purposes.

Nasa itself wants to focus on space exploration and trips to the moon and Mars.

ak/AFP

Source: spiegel

All tech articles on 2022-04-08

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