New Delhi: The Axiom Mission 1 (Ax-1), the first all-private astronaut mission to the International Space Station, took off on Friday, April 8.
A four-person crew blasted off into space aboard a SpaceX Crew Dragon spacecraft, atop a Falcon 9 rocket, from the historic Launch Complex 39A in Kennedy Space Center, Florida, at 11:17 am EDT (8:47 pm IST), as part of the mission.
Ax-1 is the first crewed mission of Houston-based aerospace firm Axiom Space, and a major step towards building the next generation platform in low-Earth orbit.
SpaceX launched a retired NASA astronaut and three paying passengers to the space station. It is reported that the paying crewmembers paid about $55 million each for their seats.
The Ax-1 crew consists of former NASA astronaut and Axiom vice president Michael López-Alegría; American entrepreneur and non-profit activist investor Larry Connor; Canadian investor and philanthropist Mark Pathy; and Israeli impact investor and philanthropist Eytan Stibbe.
If all goes to plan, the Ax-1 crew will reach the space station on Saturday, April 9, at 7:30 am EDT (5:00 pm IST). The crew will stay aboard the US segment of the orbital laboratory for approximately eight days, Axiom Space said in a statement.
Meet The Ax-1 Crew
López-Alegría is mission commander, Connor is the mission pilot, while Pathy and Stibbe are the mission specialists of the 10-day mission.
Mission Commander López-Alegría is the chief astronaut for Axiom Space, and has had a record setting career at NASA for 20 years, flying to space four times.
López-Alegría is set to create history as the first person to ever command both a civil and a commercial human spaceflight mission.
Mission Pilot Connor is a real estate and technology entrepreneur and aerobatics aviator from Ohio.
Through Ax-1, Connor will become the first private pilot to reach the space station and the first human to reach the deepest ocean depths and other space within one year, Axiom Space said on its website. He will also be Israel's second astronaut to reach space.
Mission Specialist Stibbe, who is an impact investor and philanthropist, will travel to the space station under the "Rakia" banner and the maxim "There is no dream beyond reach" which magnificently captures the spirit of the mission.
Stibbe will be Israel's second astronaut to reach space.
Mission Specialist Pathy, the chief executive officer (CEO) and chairman of Montreal-based MAVRIK, a privately-owned sustainable investment and financing company, has been trained to become proficient in operating a suite of tools to support their crew members throughout the mission.
Pathy will become Canada’s second private astronaut and the 12th Canadian to go to space.
ALSO READ | Ax-1: A Former NASA Astronaut & 3 Philanthropists Make History Today With First All-Private Mission To ISS
Mission Timeline
By 5:45 pm IST, the Ax-1 crew had suited up and was headed to the historic launch complex 39A, Axiom Space said in a mission update.
At around 6 pm IST, the Ax-1 crew was walking down the crew access arm to the white room, before entering the spacecraft.
By 6:18 pm IST, the Ax-1 crew was seated in the Crew Dragon spacecraft. Communications and suit leak checks were made, and the seats were rotated, before launch.
At 7:53 pm IST, SpaceX tweeted: “Ax-1 crew are go for launch”.
The crew access arm retracted from the Dragon spacecraft and Falcon 9 less than an hour before launch.
At T-35 minutes until liftoff, propellant loading of the Falcon 9 rocket began and Dragon’s escape system was armed.
A few minutes before the launch of Ax-1, Kathy Lueders, who leads NASA’s human spaceflight program, wrote on Twitter that when NASA began the Commercial Crew Program 10 years ago, the US space agency envisioned private companies servicing low-Earth orbit. She further wrote that a renaissance in human spaceflight is on full display today with the Ax-1 private astronaut mission.
About three minutes after liftoff, main engine cutoff and stage separation were confirmed. The first stage entry burn was complete about eight minutes after liftoff.
The mission will feature nearly 100 hours of research on behalf of numerous organisations. The Ax-1 crew will conduct approximately 25 experiments focused on human research, life and physical sciences, technology demonstrations, and Earth observations which will expand microgravity research to new sectors.
By conducting these experiments, the crew will collect data which could improve the understanding of human physiology on Earth and in orbit. Also, the findings will establish the utility of novel technologies that could be used for future human spaceflight activities.
Axiom Mission 1 investigations include TESSERAE, Sanford Consortium for Regenerative Medicine, JAMSS Photocatalyst, among others.
“We are opening a new era in human spaceflight. We are taking the first step in a next generation platform initiative that's going to bring working, living, and research in space to a much broader and more international audience, “ López-Alegría said in a Twitter post on April 1.
"I think I speak for all of us that we understand this first civilian mission is a big honour and a big opportunity," Connor said in a press conference on April 1. He said that the first civilian mission comes with a big responsibility, which is to execute the mission correctly and successfully.
Connor, Stibbe, and Pathy have also partnered directly with research organisations in their regions on a range of human health and technology investigations, from ageing and chronic pain, to the first in-space demonstration of two-way holoportation, which is a mixed reality application using special lenses to project images via a hologram.