The crew of the first fully commercial human mission to the International Space Station is “chomping at the bit” for the debut mission of Axiom Space, its co-founder reported.
Michael Suffredini, CEO of Axiom and NASA’s former International Space Station (ISS) program manager, told reporters this during the flight readiness review press conference in late March, concerning Ax-1. The mission, now scheduled for April 6 after a few launch range delays, will serve as a precursor for the company’s plans to put a space station in orbit.
Ax-1 is set to run four individuals to the space station aboard a SpaceX Crew Dragon, including Canadian Mark Pathy – a mission specialist on, along with CEO and chair of a Montreal-based investment company called MARVIK.
Pathy is paying for his seat, along with Israeli entrepreneur Eytan Stibbe (of Vital Capital, an impact investment fund) and American real estate and technology investor Larry Connor (who heads The Connor Group). Commanding the mission will be former NASA astronaut Michael López-Alegría. The group will spend 10 days in space, including eight on the ISS.
Unlike typical space tourists, however, each paying individual will run his own research agenda supported by a network of ground institutions in medicine, technology and science.
“This really is paving a way for (a) new era where there are more and more opportunities for individuals and nations around the world to live and work in the microgravity environment,” Suffredini said of Axiom’s first mission.
Ax-1’s research and science is wide-ranging, including 25 experiments that will be conducted on board ISS and several more experiments conducted pre- and post-landing. The crew aims to spend 100 hours of research time in space. They have spent about eight weeks training for ISS work and another eight weeks working with SpaceX.
Axiom’s quick introduction stands in comparison to a typical long-duration space station flight training cycle for professionals. That is 2.5 years of mission-specific training for an already highly trained astronaut. Professionals must pass two years of basic training just to qualify for flight status. Many astronauts spend years supporting other missions before getting a spaceflight opportunity and continuing to deepen their spaceflight training along the way.
“We do endeavour to train to the same level as our NASA colleagues,” Suffredini said. He added he doesn’t think the calibre of training is quite the same as a professional, although NASA officials clarified the Axiom commercial astronauts are quite well-versed in safety procedures.
Pathy will represent the Montreal Children’s Hospital, Canadian Research Universities and the Royal Canadian Geographical Society. His work will cover fields including sleep disturbances, radiation exposure, eye structure, and mixed reality technology, among other things.
Connor will represent the Mayo Clinic and Cleveland Clinic, focusing especially on heart health and senescent cells – cells that have ceased dividing. Stibbe, meanwhile, will represent the Ramon Foundation, the Israel Space Agency and the Israeli Ministry of Innovation, Science, and Technology in fields such as health care, communication, astrophysics and optics.
Axiom aims to prove that non-professional astronauts can run research programs just as rigorous as agency astronauts – and with similar benefits to Earth. Additionally, the company plans to build out its own infrastructure to support the investigations. Axiom hopes to launch its first space station module by 2024 and then to have an independent space station by 2030.
This mission comes as NASA aims to expand the commercial reach of companies in orbit. We’ve seen more than a decade of SpaceX and Northrop Grumman (previously Orbital Sciences Corp.) sending cargo successfully to space, and numerous commercial investigations aboard the U.S. National Laboratory. Now, the agency hopes to give the industry training wheel contracts like Axiom’s to get companies ready for their own space stations to succeed the ISS.
In December 2021, for example, NASA announced early-stage development contracts to Blue Origin, Nanoracks and Northrop Grumman “to develop designs of space stations and other commercial destinations in space.” At the time, officials said they aimed to have these space stations ready by 2030 to replace the ISS.
Axiom is taking a bit of a different approach, in building space station modules aboard the ISS. (Though it should be noted Nanoracks has already built and is using the Bishop airlock on the ISS.) Eventually, Axiom aims to detach these modules collectively to serve as a free-flying independent space station.
NASA’s most recent budget request reflects this new reality, as the space station had a nearly even budget request for fiscal 2023 of $1.307 million USD (compared with $1.327 million in fiscal 2022), as the agency shifts low-Earth orbit development to supporting all of these commercial ventures.
Axiom’s modules, according to media reports, will fly to space between 2024 and 2027. Included will be a research laboratory with manufacturing capability, crew quarters, room to store valuable payloads, and room to even film movies in space. What this means is that future commercial astronauts will have an opportunity to – for a price – run their own investigations or perform their own activities on a commercial space.
Based on how NASA runs its commercial cargo and commercial crew programs, we can expect that the agency will oversee such vital matters as safety and payload congruence with overall space station systems. After that, however, Axiom provides more space and a separate set of opportunities for companies looking to do research, to test out technology or to run space missions with focuses like filming.
But that’s far in the future. For now, Axiom says it is leaving its manifest open to focus on earlier missions – including Ax-2, which will be commanded by former NASA astronaut Peggy Whitson and piloted by John Shoffner, an American racing driver, pilot and investor. More crew members will be announced in the coming months for this 2023 mission.
“Our second mission has been approved,” Suffredini said, “and that one is also a shorter-duration flight. When we look to the future, we have progressively longer missions. Our third mission will be about 30 days, and our fourth mission.”
He said the sequencing is still in flux by the time the module is ready in 2024. That said, the thinking now is to activate and check out the first module and perhaps to bring up the second before expanding operations, as that will “double the capacity for crew.” The fully completed complex will not only include four modules, but two more docking modules.
“We do intend to go to full time on ISS,” Suffredini added, “with at least one Axiom crew person. But we will also bring customers along on those flights.”
Ax-1 mission briefing – Feb. 28, 2022