SpaceX will send the AX-1 crew this April 8the first totally private mission to the International Space Station (ISS).
Where they will spend 8 days with active NASA and Roscosmos astronauts .
The flight will be made on a Falcon 9 rocket and in a Crew Dragon capsule, which will connect with the ISS in a procedure that only astronauts had performed so far.
Axiom and space tourism to another level
The mission has been commissioned by the Axiom Space company, which seeks to coordinate (and sell) completely private projects into space for work, scientific or even entertainment purposes.
The four men who will participate in this new mission are Michael López-Alegría from the United States and Spain, Larry Connor from the United States, Eytan Stibbe from Israel and Mark Pathy from Canada.
In previous announcements, it was revealed that they will each pay $55 million for the once-in-a-lifetime experience of staying aboard the International Space Station .
However, NASA is also shelling out money on this flight, as it is paying Axiom $1.69 million for services associated with the mission, such as transporting supplies to the spacecraft.
The total mission is 10 days, including round trip flights, but it will be 8 days in which they live with the current ISS crew.
There they will carry out scientific experiments, also some commercial activities, and will promote STEM education. In addition, they will also be objects of analysis with the brain reading helmets.
Collaborations involving the Mayo Clinic, Cleveland Clinic and Montreal Children’s Hospital will study the effects of microgravity on aging, heart health, spinal and brain tissue, chronic pain and sleep disorders. The team will also “harness the accelerated aging aspects of the microgravity environment to assess precancerous and early cancerous changes in tumor organoids” and test a new air purification system, among other tasks.
In general words, they will be the forerunners of tourist trips to different locations outside the Earth.
