On April 8, SpaceX brushed a new record for global commercial manned spaceflight: the first use of a five-hand rocket (B1062.5) to perform manned spaceflight, the first use of a three-handed manned spacecraft (Endeavour C206.3) to perform space missions, the world's first all-commercial all-private manned spaceflight mission to the International Space Station, spaceX's second fully commercial private manned space mission after Inspiration4, and spaceX's sixth manned space mission (DM-2, Crew-1、Crew-2、Inspiration4、Crew-3、Ax-1）。
● Launch process
As SpaceX's second fully commercial private manned space mission, this is almost the same as the launch of The Inspiration 4 in September 2021. The biggest difference is that this launch uses the highest number of multiplexing arrow ships - the first use of five-hand rockets (B1062.5), the first use of three-handed manned spacecraft (Endeavour C206.3) to carry out manned space missions.
The five-handed rocket (B1062.5) has launched GPS III-04, GPS III-05, Inspiration4, Starlink Group 4-5 and this manned space flight Ax-1.
The launch is located in Cape Canaveral, Florida Kennedy Space Center 39A launch site, coinciding with the return to the first flight to the moon (Artemis 1) ready to go, F9/Dragon, SLS/Orion two sets of launch systems occupy LC39A, B at the same time, 2.7 kilometers apart, this is the United States gold launch site LC39 after 13 years of double arrow frame.
The last time the same frame was 13 years ago, when the last time two space shuttles occupied the golden launch position at the same time in May 2009, when the Space Shuttle Endeavour stood on Launch Pad 39B and the Space Shuttle Atlantis stood on Pad 39A, preparing to fly into space for a Hubble mission. For the first time in 13 years, the U.S. gold launcher is in the same frame
As the world's first all-commercial, all-private manned spaceflight mission to the International Space Station, the launch point of Ax-1 is locked: April 8, 2022 11:17:11 EST (23:17:11 Beijing time on April 8). This is spaceX's 6th launch of manned spaceflight, the flight path is almost the same as the previous manned Dragon spacecraft missions, all in accordance with the previous manned Dragon spacecraft DM-2, Crew-1, Crew-2, Crew-3 missions, the rocket along the northeast parallel to the east coast of the United States; the Dragon spacecraft into low Earth orbit equatorial inclination is the same, are 51.6 °...
▲ T+9 minutes and 29 seconds: B1062.5 perfectly interprets spaceX's classic action, and the first stage rocket lands steadily on the ASOG [lack of solemnity] unmanned offshore platform 545 kilometers away from the launch site. This is SpaceX's 113th rocket recovery, 87th maritime recovery, and ASOG's 10th rocket recovery.
T+12 min 07 sec: Endeavour Dragon separates from the second stage (upper stage) and enters a 200×300 km deployment orbit. T+12m:55s - Dragon opens the head cone/front cone and enters auto-flight mode to embark on a solo space flight.
During this period, it flew around the ground for 20 hours, gradually climbed to the 420-kilometer international space station operating orbit, and slowly approached the international space station, using a fully automatic docking mode.
It is expected to dock at around 7:45 ET on April 9 to dock with the Zenith port of the Uss Harmony module of the International Space Station. Later, ISS commanders Thomas Marshburn, Raja Charry, Kayla Barron, and German astronaut Matthias Maurer will greet the Ax-1's four private astronauts. Three other Russian astronauts will join the bears. Despite the tense relations between the United States and Russia on the surface, the astronauts on the International Space Station are still a community of destiny and coexist harmoniously.
● Unofficial astronauts
As the world's first all-commercial, all-private manned spaceflight mission to the International Space Station, the Ax-1 was 10 days long and the International Space Station was docked for 8 days. The four crew members were all unofficial private astronauts or space tourists (NASA called Space Flight Participants).
By the way, the so-called all-private mission, because the 4 Dragon spacecraft crew are all civilians, all belong to unofficial, non-professional astronauts or space tourists, unlike the official professional astronauts. As a result, spaceX training is uniformly accepted, including commercial astronaut training, orbital mechanics, microgravity, zero gravity and other forms of stress testing, and undergo emergency preparation training, spacesuit use and spacecraft entry and exit drills, and some or all of the space mission simulation training, training 750 to 1000 hours. After being trained to meet the standard, he will finally sit in the dragon spaceship and fly into space.
Ax-1 Mission Commander Michael López-Alegría, vice president of Axiom Space, 64, born in Madrid, Spain on May 30, 1958, joined the U.S. Navy after graduating from high school with a master's degree in aeronautical engineering, was a senior NASA astronaut with four space flight experiences, flew 257 days in space, flew three space shuttles, and flew ten extravehicular missions. The mission will be his 5th space trip.
Mission pilot Larry Conner, a wealthy American businessman now 72, founder of Connor Real Estate Investment Group, which currently has more than $3.5 billion in assets. It was his first spaceflight.
Mission specialist Mark Pathy, a Canadian investor and philanthropist, 53, is the CHIEF EXECUTIVE OF Mavrik, a Canadian private investment firm, for his first spaceflight.
Mission specialist Eytan Stibbe, a wealthy Israeli businessman, 64, founder of the Life Capital Fund, was an Israeli ace pilot and F-16 pilot. It was his first journey to space and israel's second cosmonaut after Ilan Ramon.
●What is the Ax-1 ferry ticket?
It is not yet known. It is estimated that it is about $50 million per person, and since the mission commander is the VP of the Axiom Space Company, the company undertakes the total number of tickets for the remaining 3 people is about $150 million. That's obviously lower than the $55 million spaceX cost of carrying official astronauts, but well above the $20 million full-trip cost launched by Space Exploration in the first decade of the 21st century.
It is understood that these costs include: SpaceX launch freight, space mission training fees, insurance fees, NASA charges to visit the International Space Station related costs, such as mission management fees of 4.8 million US dollars / time, for mission planning and execution, space and space communication costs, etc.; official astronaut time occupation fee of 5.2 million US dollars / person, for the official astronauts to accompany space tourists Needed time costs; International Space Station living expenses, 88,000 to 164,000 US dollars per person per day.
● Ax-1 task label
This is the world's first full-staff private astronaut, purely commercial manned journey to the International Space Station; the second national unofficial manned spaceflight in the history of manned spaceflight (the first Inspire 4 mission); and the first time in the history of global manned spaceflight to use the same manned spacecraft to perform three space missions (Endeavour C206.1, C206.2, C206.3).
▲ 11 space tourists, belonging to their own pockets of astronauts, not professional astronauts sent by aerospace agencies in various countries:
Dennis Tito is a U.S. member of iss in 2001
Mark Shuttleworth is a dual citizen of South Africa and the United Kingdom, and joined iss in 2002
Gregory Olsen is a U.S. member of is at ISS in 2005
Anousheh Ansari, the only female space tourist to date, a dual citizen of the United States and Israel, entered is an ISS in 2006
Charles Simonyi, a dual citizen of the United States and Hungary, was stationed at ISS twice in 2007 and 2009, becoming the only space visitor to enter the International Space Station twice so far
Richard Garriott is a dual citizen of the United States and the United Kingdom, and entered ISS in 2008
Guy Laliberté, Canada, joined ISS in 2009
Yulia Peresild, Russia, will become the world's first professional actress to go into space in 2021, the 68th in the world, and the 5th woman in Russia to go into space
Yusaku Maezawa and his assistant Yozo Hirano, Japan, visit ISS in late 2021
In the past 21 years, through the Russian space commercial arrangement, only 11 people in the world belong to space tourists who have visited the International Space Station for a short time, and the Ax-1 mission will be more than 4 people at a time, and they will become the 12th to 13th space tourists to visit the International Space Station.
With the launch of the Ax-1 follow-up mission (Ax-2/3/4) and the Polaris series of missions in the next two or three years, the list of space tourists who visit the International Space Station will also be rapidly lengthened, and the characteristics of human spaceflight normalization, commercialization and civilianity are bound to become increasingly prominent.