A few decades ago, the idea of private individuals traveling to the International Space Station was as science fiction as a time-traveling police box. And yet, here we are in 2024, and a team of four private astronauts is aboard the ISS. The team will spend about two weeks conducting various trials, business activities and outreach activities.
Axiom Space was founded in 2016 by Michael Saffredini and Kam Gaffarian. Their goal is to organize private trips into space, mainly to the ISS but they are also developing space suits for future NASA missions to the moon. In realizing these goals, the team at Axiom Space has an amazing dream and we are on a mission to manifest it [space] To as many people as possible.
On January 18, four private astronauts were launched to the ISS aboard a Dragon spacecraft propelled by a Falcon 9 SpaceX rocket. The private mission is Axiom Space's third, with the first mission flying in April 2022 and the second in May 2023. The crew for the mission consists of Commander Michael Lopez-Alegria, Pilot Walter Villadei, and Mission Specialists Marcus Wand and Alber. Kesaravsi.
On Saturday, January 20, the crew arrived at the ISS when the Dragon module autonomously docked with the Harmony module. When the hatch opens, NASA astronauts Jasmine Mokbeli and Laurel O'Hara, ESA astronaut Andreas Mogensen, JAXA astronaut Furukawa Satoshi, and astronauts Konstantin Borisov, Oleg Konkonkonkonkonkonkonkonkonkonkonkonkonkonkonkonkonkonkonkonkonkonkonkonkonkonkonkonkonkonkonkonkonkonkonkonkonkonkonkonkonkonkonson.com will be greeted by the Expedition 70 crew.
AX-3 (as the mission is called) is scheduled to lift off from the ISS on Saturday the 3rd, weather permitting. They would have spent two weeks on the ship before making a wet arrival on the coast of Florida and returning to Earth.
Axiom Space and their partnership with NASA is doing great things, opening up low Earth orbit to more people. The 1950s and 1960s saw a space race where the United States and Russia fought to put the first man in space on the moon. Now the landscape for space travel and exploration has changed. Partnerships between major space agencies like NASA and private companies like Axiom are driving a thriving commercial space economy that will unlock space once and for all, for all of us.
Source: NASA Partners to Welcome Private Crew to Space Station
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