Musk is making history again! Three space tourists successfully lifted off on a five-handed rocket with a ticket price of 350 million

Source: Qubits

Now, humanity is taking another big step forward towards true space travel!

At 11:17 a.m. local time on April 8, with the successful launch of the "Five Hands" rocket Falcon 9, the 8-day space station tour of the three tourists began.

It is worth mentioning that none of the flight was active professional astronauts, and all the tourists paid $55 million (about 350 million yuan) for tickets (one of them was an executive company employee who did not pay). The rockets and spaceships they flew on also came from commercial companies.

This means that for the first time in history! The International Space Station ushered in an all-private, all-commercial tour.

Musk also wrote his own history again, with Falcon 9 completing the first fully private manned space mission.

Netizens excitedly said, "Send me to space" and "go to the moon".

It is worth mentioning that this time there are even greater ambitions to surface.

That's its behind-the-scenes organizer, Axiom Space, took the first step toward building a commercial space station.

Human space exploration has truly entered the era of commercialization and civilianization.

The international space welcomes the first group of tourists

On the morning of April 8, local time, two days later than originally planned, the five-handed Falcon 9 rocket and the Third-hand Dragon spacecraft, which had been standing on the launcher for many days, began to move.

Three hours before the launch, four astronauts made their official appearance and took a Tesla ride to the 39A launch pad.

At 11:17, the long-awaited scene arrived. Ignite, fire!

The Falcon 9 rocket took 4 passengers to the International Space Station, and the control center applauded at the scene.

After 2 minutes and 40 seconds, the first stage thruster separates from the previous stage.

After about 8 minutes, the first stage enters the completion of combustion. After 9 minutes and 30 seconds, the rocket stage successfully landed on the sea recovery ship, instantly becoming "six hands".

Several passengers in the spacecraft also waved to celebrate

After 12 minutes and 07 seconds, the Dragon spacecraft separated from the rocket's second stage.

From then on, the Dragon spacecraft will head full speed towards the International Space Station.

It is expected that at 7:45 Beijing time tonight, the docking with the International Space Station will be completed.

Retired NASA astronauts and business leaders from the three countries

According to the original plan, the orbital flight lasted a total of 10 days, of which 8 days were spent on the International Space Station, when it will live with the professional astronauts inside.

This is also not the first time in history that space tourists have visited the International Space Station. Most recently, in December 2021, Japanese entrepreneur Yusaku Maezawa took the Soyuz to the International Space Station.

But unlike previous sightseeing trips, this time there was no idleness at all.

During these 8 days, they will participate in scientific and educational work with astronauts, completing about 25 different experiments, including more than 100 hours of research, covering human research, life and physical sciences, technological demonstrations and Earth observations.

Let's take a look at the all-civilian squad on this mission, the youngest of whom is 50 years old and the oldest is 71 years old.

First, the team leader and mission commander is Mike Lopez-Alegria, a retired NASA astronaut.

He spent 258 days in space, flying 3 space missions and 1 international space station mission. It is also the record holder for the most spacewalks in NASA - 10 spacewalks, lasting a total of 67 hours.

Now, he is an employee of Axiom Space, the executive company.

The other three companions are Axiom Space customers who need to pay $55 million, or 350 million yuan, to travel to the space station.

It was said that Tom Cruise and Doug Leeman were supposed to participate in the flight for filming, but it was later announced that they would fly in a later mission.

The three tourists who finally went to the space station were all business tycoons

Among them was American real estate tycoon Larry Connor.

At the age of 71, he is also an experienced pilot who loves off-road racing. This time, he served as the co-pilot of the Dragon spacecraft flight.

It is worth mentioning that the old man seems to have a very personality.

At the beginning of the COVID-19 outbreak, he gave employees all of the $1.6 million he made in the stock market, stating:

That's what they deserve.

The second visitor to the International Space Station was Canadian investor Mark Pathy.

He was born in 1969 and is not young anymore. In addition to his investments, Mark is a philanthropist who has raised $5.5 million in donations for a number of healthcare facilities.

He is now the second Canadian civilian to land in space and will participate in the completion of research projects at the University of Canada and the Montreal Children's Medical Research Institute on this mission.

Finally, israeli businessman Eytan Stibbe is introduced. Born in 1958, he is a former F-16 fighter pilot in the Israeli Air Force in addition to his status as an entrepreneur.

From 2013 to 2019, he worked as a lecturer at the Israel Air Force Flight Academy.

Experiments in space include brain headphones from Israeli startups that study how the brain responds to spaceflight and life in space, as well as some scientific equipment from the nonprofit Ramon Foundation.

In addition to completing these experiments, Eytan Stibbe will honor Israel's first astronaut, Ilan Ramon, who was killed in a space shuttle accident. After this flight, Eytan Stibbe will be the second Israeli to go into space.

Take the first step towards commercialization of the space station

This flight carries more than just the significance of human commercial space travel.

Or a company Axiom Space, with the help of Musk's SpaceX, to complete its own business ambitions and the sea of stars.

You know, since last year, NASA has been planning to replace the International Space Station with a commercial space station.

Axiom Space, which organized the isleted of the is a commercial tour of the International Space Station.

Axiom Space, a company, is not small.

In 2016, Michael T. Suffredini and Kam Ghaffarian founded the company, which includes commercial manned space travel, space exploration research, and more.

Michael T. Suffredini, as president and CEO of the company, is a key figure in the construction of the International Space Station, having worked at NASA for 30 years.

From 2005 to 2015, he served as Director of the International Space Station Construction Project, completing the development and operation of the International Orbital Laboratory.

In fact, many of Axiom's employees have worked at NASA. Axiom and NASA have also been close.

In 2020, NASA signed a $140 million contract with Axiom Space to allow it to add commercial modules to the International Space Station.

Construction of the first additional living module (AxH1) is now also underway, with launches expected in 2024 and finally being completed in 2028.

And this mission is Axiom's substantial step in building a commercial space station.

As can be seen from the official renderings, this commercial space station will have an observation deck where people can stand here and watch the space scenery.

Well, the idea does fit the thinking of the tourism industry very well.

In fact, in addition to Axiom, NASA signed $400 million contracts with several other commercial companies last year, again with the same goal of building a commercial space station.

Here we are going to talk about blue origin, an old friend of commercial spaceflight.

They have jointly developed the Orbital Reef with Boeing, Redwire and Sierra Space plans. The design space is 830 cubic meters in size and can accommodate up to 10 people. It is expected to be operational in 2023.

Nanoracks, Voyager Space and Lockheed Martin intend to jointly develop a small space station, Starlab, with the goal of going into orbit by 2027.

……

Obviously, before the International Space Station is decommissioned in 2030, NASA will open its doors for commercial space companies to support them in building one commercial space station after another.

This is expected to save NASA at least $1 billion a year.

On the other hand, the construction of the "Tiangong" of the continental space station has reached a critical year.

Up to now, five missions have been successfully implemented in the key technology verification phase, and the Shenzhou 13 astronaut crew plans to return to the ground in April.

Reference Links:

[1]https://www.spacex.com/launches/ax-1/

[2]https://www.nasaspaceflight.com/2021/11/axiom-suff-interview/