2024-01-16 20:16:13
A sign of the times, the first manned flight of 2024 will be a private flight to the International Space Station carried out by SpaceX on behalf of Axiom Space. This mission, which takes on board a reserve astronaut from the ESA, is interesting in that it seems to mark a “change of direction” in the young history of human tourist flights with flights having a professional rather than a recreational vocation.
This will also interest you
[EN VIDÉO] Swipe Into Space episode 6: space tourism, dream or nightmare? In this new episode of Swipe Into Space, we wonder about space tourism:…
During the night from Wednesday to Thursday, a SpaceX Falcon 9 will launch Axiom Space’s third mission (Ax-3) to the International Space Station (ISS). The four crew members will join the orbital complex aboard a SpaceX Crew Dragon, the same vehicle used by NASA and ESA professional astronauts during crew rotations.
Led by the American of Spanish origin Michael Lopez-Alegria, a former NASA astronaut who has already experienced three shuttle flights, a stay in the ISS and 10 extravehicular outings, the mission will last 14 days during which 30 experiments and Technological demonstrations will be carried out.
An ESA reserve astronaut member of the Ax-3 crew
This exclusively European crew includes the Italian Walter Villadei, colonel of the Italian Air Force, having already carried out a suborbital flight with Virgin Galactic in June 2023, the Turkish Alper Cezeravci, colonel of the Air Force, and the Swede Marcus Wandt, an ESA reserve astronaut from the class of 2022 – his mission was funded by the Swedish Space Agency, while ESA took care of his training for a few weeks at the European Space Center. astronauts in Cologne.
Although his mission will last only 14 days, in contrast to the six-month missions for career ESA astronauts, the presence of Marcus Wandt, as a reserve astronaut, aboard the ISS before some career astronauts of the ESA, may surprise but does not surprise us.
A mission that foreshadows the future of “tourist” flights
Indeed, this Axiom mission seems to anticipate the future of private manned flights in orbit, where we will consider more missions financed by States, institutes or agencies, rather than purely tourist trips.
This crew which is preparing to fly to the ISS, where everyone is involved in professional activities in space, summarizes our analysis and underlines this transition towards space missions with a professional rather than recreational vocation for the future, financed and led by institutions rather than by tourism initiatives which will ultimately be very few in number. This trend is also observed with the suborbital flights of Virgin Galactic and Blue Origin where we are witnessing this evolution with flights with a “military” and scientific vocation.
Soon a film studio in space for Tom Cruise
A fourth manned mission for Axiom Space
Axiom Space won’t stop there, also planning the AX-4 mission later this year, likely led by former NASA astronaut Peggy Whitson, who holds the record for 675 days in space, more than any other female astronaut in the world. Its launch is not scheduled before August.
1705438501
#astronauts #join #Space #Station #January #private #mission