SpaceX & Axiom Space Team Up For Friday Launch

If all goes according to plan, SpaceX will launch their second private manned mission Friday, April 8 at 11:17 AM EDT for Axiom Space.  This will be a one week mission to the International Space Station for Axiom, where the crew of four will be conducting a variety of experiments primarily using equipment already on the ISS.  There have been space tourist missions to the ISS before, but this is more corporate R&D for Axiom, a contender in the development of a private space station.  In this case, the term “private manned mission” means Axiom is paying NASA for access and anything they consume in doing their experiments.  In turn, three of the four-man crew will pay Axiom to work for them in space, which will help defray Axiom's costs.   

Axiom put up an hour long video (55 minutes) of Q&A with the four man crew, one of the company founders and another principal officer, talking about their goals for the mission, but with very little depth about any actual experiments they're doing.  As a company, they're dedicated to opening up space for commerce and the unique things that can be done in microgravity.  

SpaceX Image

Teslarati reports:

The focus of Axiom-1’s crew is three ultrawealthy customers:

• Larry Connor: Ax-1’s pilot and an entrepreneur who accrued his wealth through real estate
• Eytan Stibbe: a venture capitalist and former fighter pilot who could become the second Israeli astronaut ever
• Mark Pathy: CEO of Canadian investment and shipping companies
  

Each paying $55 million for the ten-day journey and eight-day stay at the International Space Station (ISS), Connor, Stibbe, and Pathy are bankrolling the mission. Crew Dragon’s fourth Ax-1 passenger, however, is Michael López-Alegría, a retired four-time NASA astronaut turned private (space) pilot who now works for Axiom Space.

Last fall's Inspiration4 mission, while also a private space mission, was different in lots of details.  It orbited for a shorter period, didn't go to the ISS, and was funded almost entirely by one person (Jared Isaacman).  The mission was primarily intended as a fundraiser for St. Jude Children's Research Hospital raising over a quarter of a billion dollars for pediatric cancer research.  The crew of four also conducted other scientific experiments on orbit.    

Crew Dragon is expected to dock with the ISS about 20 hours after liftoff, giving the Ax-1 crew a little over eight full days at the ISS before they’ll need to board Dragon and return to Earth.  If the weather forecast for landing zones looks particularly bad or good leading up to undocking, SpaceX and NASA reserve the right move the departure earlier or later.