CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. – The first crew of a private space station was introduced on Tuesday: three men paying $ 55 million each to fly a SpaceX rocket.
They will be led by a former NASA astronaut who now works for Axiom Space, the Houston company that arranged the trip for January.
This is the first private flight to the International Space Station. It’s never been done before, ”said Axiom CEO and President Mike Suffredini, a former space station program manager for NASA.
While Mission Commander Michael Lopez-Alegria is well known in space circles, “the other three guys are just people who want to be able to go to space, and we offer that opportunity,” Suffredini told The Associated Press.
The first crew will spend eight days on the space station, and after launch from Cape Canaveral, it will take one or two days to board a SpaceX Dragon capsule there.
Russia has been active in off-planet tourism for years, selling rides to the International Space Station since 2001. Other aerospace companies like Richard Branson’s Virgin Galactic and Jeff Bezos’ Blue Origin plan to take paying customers up and down flights that take just minutes. These trips – much more affordable with seating for hundreds of thousands versus millions – could start this year.
Axiom’s first clients include Larry Connor, a Dayton, Ohio-based real estate and tech entrepreneur, Canadian financier Mark Pathy, and Israeli businessman Eytan Stibbe, a close friend of Israel’s first astronaut Ilan Ramon, who died in accident with the space shuttle Columbia.
“These guys are all very involved and doing it for some kind of betterment of their communities and countries, and so we couldn’t be happier with this first-team line-up because of their drive and interest,” said Suffredini.
Each of these first paying clients plans to conduct scientific research in orbit, he said, along with educational outreach.
Lopez-Alegria, a former space station resident and spacewalk leader, called the group a “collection of pioneers.”
Tom Cruise was named as a potential crew member last year; Top NASA officials confirmed he was interested in filming a movie in the space station. There was no word on Tuesday whether Cruise will catch the next Axiom flight. Suffredini declined to comment.
Each of the private astronauts had to pass medical tests and receive 15 weeks of training, according to Suffredini. Connor, 70, becomes the second oldest person to fly in space, following John Glenn’s 1998 shuttle flight at the age of 77. He will also serve as a capsule pilot under Lopez-Alegria.
Axiom plans about two private missions a year to the space station. It is also working to launch its own living compartments to the station from 2024. This section would be disconnected from the station once retired by NASA and its international partners and become its own private station.