The conquest of space has begun and with it the era of space tourism the crew of the first fully private orbital space mission is ready and includes four men, notably three space tourists as clients and a former NASA astronaut as commander. Each ticket cost $ 55 million.
According to Axiom Space, the company organizing the trip to the International Space Station, the passage of the Crew Dragon ship chartered for the trip will include Larry Connor, a 71-year-old American technology and real estate entrepreneur; Eytan Stibbe, businessman and former Israeli fighter pilot, second in his country to travel to space; Mark Pathy, a Canadian investor and philanthropist; and Michael Lopez-Alegria, a retired NASA astronaut of Spanish descent, who logged nearly 260 days in four previous missions.
The Axiom Mission 1 (Ax-1) flight is being organized under a commercial agreement with NASA. This Axiom mission allows the crew to live aboard the orbital complex and experience at least eight days of microgravity and views of Earth that can only be fully appreciated from the space station. According to The Washington Post, each space tourist ticket costs $ 55 million.
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Connor, who has flown more than 16 different aircraft and participated in the US National Aerobatics Championship, will serve as the Dragon’s pilot and become the first private astronaut to pilot an orbital space mission. SpaceX designed its manned Dragon capsule to fly autonomously, requiring human intervention only in emergency situations.
Depending on other planned activities on the space station, the Ax-1 mission could be launched as early as January 2022.
At the age of 71, Connor becomes the second oldest person to fly into space (second only to the late John Glenn, who made his second spaceflight at the age of 77). Director of The Connor Group, a luxury apartment investment company with more than $ 3 billion in assets, Connor has also co-founded two fintech companies and The Connor Group Kids & Community Partners, which serves underprivileged youth in the communities where it is active. Connor Group.
In addition to flying, Connor also competes in off-road racing, rafting the Zambezi River in Africa and the Futaleufu River in South America, and reaches the summit of Kilimanjaro in Africa and Mount Rainier in Washington State.
Pathy, 50, will be the 11th Canadian to fly into space, following nine Canadian Space Agency astronauts and co-founder of Cirque du Soleil, who became Canada’s first alleged “space tourist” in 2009, Space reports. Com.
Pathy is the CEO and president of Mavrik, a private investment and finance company, and is the chairman of the board of the Stingray Group, a music, media and technology company, both based in Montreal. He also serves on the board of the Pathy Family Foundation and serves on the boards and executive committees of Dansla Rue and the Montreal Children’s Hospital Foundation.
Stibbe, who was born in Haifa, will be the second Israeli to go into space after his friend Ilan Ramon, who tragically died on the space shuttle Columbia in 2003.
Stibbe founded the Vital Capital Fund, which focuses on commercial and financial companies, mainly in Africa. He is also a founding member and a board member of the Ben-Gurion University Center for African Studies and a board member of several non-governmental organizations dealing with education, art and culture. At the age of 63, Stibbe becomes the third oldest person to orbit the Earth.
Lopez-Alegria will be the first former NASA astronaut to return to orbit the ISS. He will also turn 63 when it launches, but will be five months younger than Stibbe.
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Founded by former NASA space station program manager Michael Suffredini, Axiom Space will host training and oversee the flight operations of the Ax-1 crew, with López-Alegría serving as a company representative in space.
The Ax-1 mission is the first in a series of flights to the space station, including one possibly manned by actor Tom Cruise and director Doug Liman, which are precursors to Axiom’s launch and connecting new commercial modules to the ISS. The Axiom segment will serve as a testbed for the planned Axiom free-flight station.
LNB