For 350 million yuan, Musk and others sent three wealthy businessmen to the International Space Station, the oldest of whom was in his 70s

On Friday, April 8, a spacecraft of SpaceX, founded by Musk, was launched on Friday, 8 April, carrying the first all-private astronaut corps into the International Space Station (ISS).

(Source: Infographic)

There are four people on top, selected by Houston-based startup Axiom Space. The company's live video shows the 25-story SpaceX launch vehicle, consisting of two stages of Falcon 9 rockets and the Dragon capsule, paddling the blue skies off Florida's Atlantic coast on a blazing yellow exhaust tail.

Cameras inside the crew cabin captured four men "tied" to the pressurized cabin, sitting in helmets and black and white flight suits. Nine minutes after launch, the rocket's upper deck sends the capsule into preliminary orbit. Meanwhile, the rocket's reusable lower layers separated from the rest of the spacecraft, flew back to Earth and landed safely on the landing platform on the drone spacecraft.

Figure | Four crew members (Source: Infographic)

If all goes according to plan, the foursome will arrive at the space station on Saturday local time. By then, after more than 20 hours of flight, the autonomous Dragon will dock with an orbital outpost about 250 miles (402 kilometers) from Earth.

The launch is also SpaceX's sixth human spaceflight in the past two years, and the September 2021 Inspiration 4 launch first put all-civilian crews into orbit, but there was no docking with the International Space Station at the time. The trip was facilitated by Axiom Space, which takes care of rocket flight bookings, provides all the necessary training, and coordinates flights to the International Space Station for anyone who can afford it.

A former NASA astronaut and three wealthy businessmen each fetched $2,000 a day for food alone

Axiom Space previously revealed that during the 10-day trip to the International Space Station, each seat was $55 million, equivalent to about 350 million yuan, one of which was its own employees who did not need to pay.

In fact, in space, $2,000 per person per day for food costs, and providing commercial crews with a round trip to and from the space station is $88,000 to $164,000 per person per day.

On this mission, called AX-1, the four crew members were:

Michael Lopez-Alegría, 63, is currently Axiom Space's vice president of business development and mission commander for the flight. As a former NASA astronaut, he flew three space shuttle missions and one Soyuz mission (staying on the International Space Station for 6 months), and he also holds the record for the most NASA careers - 10 spacewalks with a cumulative time of 67 hours and 40 minutes. After retiring from NASA 10 years ago, he began to enter the industry.

Figure | Michael Lopez-Alegría (Source: Data Chart)

Eytan Stibbe, an Israeli businessman, was the second Israeli to go into space after the late astronaut Ilan Ramon, who was killed in the STS-107 space shuttle mission in 2003. Eitan Steeb himself, a former Israeli Air Force pilot, calls his mission "Rakia," a biblical term used to describe God's creation of air. Ethan Steb will conduct some research in flight and will link the educational and artistic activities of the younger generation in Israel and around the world. On this flight, Steven did not represent himself, but on behalf of the Ramon Foundation, a space education non-profit organization named after Elan Ramon, who said in his profile at Axiom Space that he and Ramon had a "close" friendship.

Figure | Eytan Stibbe (Source: Data Chart)

Mark Pathy, a native of Canada, is the CEO of an investment and financing firm. He is the 12th Canadian to go into space and the second Canadian private astronaut after Guy Laliberté, who flew to the International Space Station in 2009. On Passy's to-do list, he will work with several Canadian hospitals to conduct some research on children's health.

Figure | Mark Pathy (Source: Infographic)

Larry Connor, the founder and president of the Ohio real estate giant, is in his 70s, the exact age is unknown. He is a private pilot who has competed in aerobatics and is also a racing driver. Connor was designated as a mission pilot during the flight and served as Michael Lopez-Alegria's deputy. He will do some age-related disease research, which will be conducted by the Mayo Clinic in the United States in collaboration with the Cleveland Clinic in the United States.

Figure | Larry Connor (Source: Infographic)

During the shutdown, the crew will also enjoy panoramic views of the Earth. They also dine together, prepared in collaboration with Hispanic-American chef and philanthropist José Andrés, in a style that depends on the tastes and traditional cuisine of Michael's hometown, Spain, the conductor of the crew.

Combined with the past, the U.S. government has granted astronaut wings to anyone who travels more than 50 miles above the Earth's surface. But the Commercial Astronaut Wing — a relatively new name issued by the Federal Aviation Administration — may not have been so generous. In 2021, the FAA decided to "shut down" the entire commercial Space Astronaut Wings program on January 1, 2022. Now, the FAA simply plans to list on its website the names of all those who fly above the 50-mile threshold. Therefore, whether it is fair to call people who spend money to go to space "astronauts" remains an open question.

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Axiom Space will conduct three more private astronaut missions over the next two years

The mission represents a partnership between Axiom Space, SpaceX and NASA, all three of which see it as an important step in the expansion of commercial space companies. This mission is also considered to be the "wayfinding" of the international space station on commercial missions. In about a decade, one or more commercial space stations will succeed the International Space Station.

NASA Director Clarence William Bill Nelson told the media before the flight that NASA would strip commercial operations from the Earth's surface and put it in space. The shift, he said, allows NASA to focus more on sending humans back to the moon, Mars and other deep space explorations.

During the flight, SpaceX conducted mission control at the company's headquarters near Los Angeles. In addition to providing a launch site, NASA is also responsible for assisting astronauts in research and demonstrations when astronauts meet the space station. Axiom Space says its mission extends far beyond space tourism, with every astronaut receiving hundreds of hours of astronaut training from NASA and SpaceX.

While the space station receives civilian tourists from time to time, the Ax-1 mission marks the birth of the first full-commercial team of astronauts to use the ISS as an orbital research laboratory. At the same time, Axiom Space also said that it has signed a contract with SpaceX to perform three more private astronaut missions to the space station in the next two years.

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reference:

https://spacenews.com/spacex-launches-commercial-mission-to-iss/