Axiom Space unveils the AX-1 crew for the completely private SpaceX mission to the ISS

A pair of investors join the first completely private flight to the International Space Station – not as financial backers, but as flying passengers.

Houston’s Axiom Space start-up revealed Tuesday that real estate investor Larry Connor and Canadian investor Mark Pathy will fly on its upcoming AX-1 mission. The pair joins former NASA astronaut Michael López-Alegría, who will be the flight commander, and former Israeli fighter pilot Eytan Stibbe. Connor will be the pilot of the mission, which will make him the first private space flight pilot.

Axiom signed an agreement with SpaceX for the mission last year. Elon Musk’s company is scheduled to launch the full private crew no earlier than January 2022, using a Crew Dragon capsule to transport them to the space station. The mission is priced high – $ 55 million per person – but will provide them with an eight-day stay on the space station.

“An entire crew has never been a non-professional astronaut,” López-Alegría told CNBC. “This is truly revolutionary and I think it’s very important for the mission to be successful and safe because we’re really paving the way for a lot of things to happen to us.”

López-Alegría flew into space four times for NASA as a professional astronaut, but now works for Axiom. He will lead them through about 15 weeks of training starting in the fall, command the spacecraft and make sure the other three crew members “have a safe and productive time,” he said.

The AX-1 was originally scheduled for October 2021, but has dropped by early 2022. Axiom wants to fly “a few of these missions a year,” López-Alegría added, so future missions are on deck. There has been much speculation that the AX-1 will play the role of actor Tom Cruise, as last year NASA announced that it was working with Cruise to shoot a movie on the ISS.

Connor has led the Connor Group since 2003, building the Ohio-based real estate investment firm with more than $ 3 billion in assets. Pathy, who is to become the 11th Canadian astronaut, is CEO and chairman of the MAVRIK Corp. family office fund, as well as chairman of the board of Montreal-listed music company Stingray Group.

Stibbe will be the second Israeli astronaut – the first was Ilan Ramon, a payload specialist aboard the Columbia spacecraft, who was killed in February 2003 when Columbia broke up during re-entry. Stibbe was a close friend of Ramon’s.

While space tourism is an emerging subsector of the space industry, Axiom’s private passengers do not fall into this category.

“We absolutely don’t think we’re space tourists,” Connor told CNBC.

López-Alegría similarly emphasized that the 10-day mission “is not 100% a holiday for these guys”.

“They are very focused on being a mission to promote a benefit to society, so everyone is working on flight programs,” Lopez-Alegria said. “They team up with various institutions, hospitals and other research entities, as well as to do activities while they are up there.”

Each of the three has research missions that they will carry out on behalf of other organizations. Connor works with the Mayo Clinic and the Cleveland Clinic. Meanwhile, Pathy works with the Canadian Space Agency and the Children’s Hospital of Montreal. Finally, Stibbe works on behalf of the Ramon Foundation and the Israeli Space Agency.

“I volunteered to be a test subject,” Connor said. “We will not be spectators; we will go there to do research and hopefully add value to people.”

Connor and Pathy witnessed the first launch of the SpaceX astronaut, the Demo-2 mission in May, which was the first rocket launch they had ever seen.

SpaceX developed Crew Dragon with heavy NASA funding, with the spacecraft built to fly astronauts to and from the ISS in low Earth orbit. SpaceX has so far launched two astronaut crews for NASA, including the first operational mission called Crew-1 in November.

Although NASA has contributed to its development, Musk’s company owns and operates the spacecraft and the rocket – Axiom manages the mission and prepares the astronauts for launch.

The AX-1 crew has not yet begun official training, but Connor said he stopped at the SpaceX headquarters in Los Angeles to match a spacesuit and see the spaceship.

“The Crew Dragon capsule, in terms of quality and professionalism, is just remarkable,” Connor said. “And you can say that, [as a group SpaceX is] exceptionally talented and committed to the mission. “

Connor pointed out that “NASA and SpaceX have nothing but a remarkable safety record,” which he said he and his family have considered when considering the risk of spaceflight.

“We’ve come to the point where we’re not only confident, but also comfortable that we can do both a valuable and a safe mission,” Connor said.

The AX-1 is expected to use SpaceX’s Crew Dragon “Resilience” spacecraft after returning from the current Crew-1 mission. While the company regularly lands and reuses Falcon 9 missile amplifiers and Cargo Dragon capsules, the AX-1 would probably be the first time reuse is introduced in a Crew Dragon spacecraft.

“I’m very comfortable with that,” Lopez-Alegría said. “Reuse is something that has always made sense in human space flight.”

With $ 55 million in the chair, it’s no surprise that the first private space crew includes people with high net worth, such as Connor and Pathy. The first said it was “a fair question and concern” that some might criticize private spaceflight only for the ultra-rich.

“We have a lot of domestic and international problems and challenges, but does that mean we should forget about the future?” Connor asked. “And, if you’re really thinking about the future, my point is that space is the next big frontier, so shouldn’t we try to explore and, in some ways, try to open this way?”

López-Alegría described the mission as “the first crack in the door to the democratization of space,” closely following the 2019 NASA decision to allow private missions to visit the ISS. NASA will pay each person $ 35,000 a day while on board to compensate for necessary services such as food and data consumption.

“It’s not a very democratic demographic right now because of the cost of flights, but we fully anticipate that costs will start to go down,” López-Alegría said. “At some point we will be able to offer them to the man on the street. It will take some time, but that is the goal and you have to start somewhere.”

For Connor’s part, he called for critics of private spaceflight to “think long-term” in 25 or more years from now.

“Will it be so unusual for people to go into space? I think and I hope the answer will be no. So someone has to start it, someone has to do the exploration and set the standards, and so we hope people will show up in this way, “Connor said.

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