Axiom Space presents the AX-1 crew for the fully private SpaceX mission to ISS

A couple of investors join the first fully private flight on the International Space Station, not as financial sponsors, but as flying passengers.

Houston-based Axiom Space revealed Tuesday that real estate investor Larry Connor and Canadian investor Mark Pathy will fly on their next AX-1 mission. The pair joins former NASA astronaut Michael Lopez-Alegria, who will be the flight commander, and former Israeli fighter pilot Eytan Stibbe. Connor will be the pilot of the mission, making him the first private space flight pilot.

Axiom signed an agreement with SpaceX for the mission last year. Elon Musk’s company is scheduled to launch the fully private crew before January 2022, using a Crew Dragon capsule to take them to the space station. The mission is priced high ($ 55 million per person), but will allow them an eight-day stay on the space station.

“No entire crew has ever been non-professional astronauts,” Lopez-Alegría told CNBC. “This is really innovative and I think it’s very important that the mission is successful and safe because we’re really paving the way for a lot of things to happen after us.”

López-Alegría flew into space four times for NASA as a professional astronaut, but now works for Axiom. He will direct them for about 15 weeks of training starting in the fall, command the spacecraft and make sure the other three crew members “have safe and productive time,” he said.

AX-1 was initially scheduled for October 2021, but slipped in early 2022. Axiom wants to do “a couple of these missions a year,” Lopez-Alegría added, so that future missions will be on deck. Speculation abounded that AX-1 would feature actor Tom Cruise, as last year NASA announced it was working with Cruise to film a film on the ISS.

Connor has been leading the Connor Group since 2003, building the Ohio-based real estate investment company to more than $ 3 billion in assets. Pathy, who will become the 11th Canadian astronaut, is the CEO and chairman of the MAVRIK Corp. family office fund, as well as chairman of the board of Montreal-based music company Stingray Group.

Stibbe would be the second Israeli astronaut; the first was Ilan Ramon, a payload specialist aboard the space shuttle Columbia, who was assassinated in February 2003 when Columbia broke down during his re-entry. Stibbe was a close friend of Ramon.

Although space tourism is an emerging subsector of the space industry, Axiom’s private passengers do not fall into this category.

“We don’t absolutely believe we’re space tourists,” Connor told CNBC.

López-Alegría also stressed that the 10-day mission “is not a 100% holiday for these boys.”

“They’re really focused on making this a mission to promote a benefit to society, so everyone is working on flight programs,” Lopez-Alegria said. “They are partnering with various institutions, hospitals and other research entities, as well as to do outreach while they are there.”

Each of the three has research missions that they will conduct on behalf of other organizations. Connor collaborates with the Mayo Clinic and the Cleveland Clinic. Meanwhile, Pathy works with the Canadian Space Agency and the Montreal Children’s Hospital. Finally, Stibbe works on behalf of the Ramon Foundation and the Israeli Space Agency.

“I volunteered to be a test subject,” Connor said. “There will be no spectators; we will go there to investigate and hopefully add some value to the people.”

Connor and Pathy witnessed SpaceX’s first astronaut launch, the Demo-2 mission in May, which was the first rocket launch they had seen in person.

SpaceX developed Crew Dragon thanks to strong funding from NASA, with the spacecraft built to fly ISS astronauts into low Earth orbit. SpaceX has so far launched two astronaut crews for NASA, including the first operational mission called Crew-1 in November.

Although NASA contributed to its development, Musk’s company owns and operates the spacecraft and the rocket, with Axiom managing the mission and preparing the astronauts for launch.

The crew of the AX-1 has not yet begun its formal training, but Connor said they have gone through SpaceX’s Los Angeles headquarters to look for a spaceship and see the spacecraft.

“The Crew Dragon capsule, in terms of quality and professionalism, is exceptional,” Connor said. “And you can say, [as a group SpaceX is] exceptionally talented and committed to the mission “.

Connor emphasized that “NASA and SpaceX have nothing less than a remarkable safety record,” which he said he reviewed with his family when considering the risk of flying into space.

“We get to the point where we’re not only safe, we’re comfortable, that we can do a valuable, safe mission,” Connor said.

AX-1 is expected to use SpaceX’s Crew Dragon “Resilience” spacecraft after returning from its current Crew-1 mission. While the company regularly lands and reuses its Falcon 9 rocket boosters and its Cargo Dragon capsules, the AX-1 is likely to be the first time a reuse has been introduced on a Crew Dragon spacecraft.

“I’m very comfortable with that,” Lopez-Alegría said. “Reuse is something that has always made sense in human spaceflight.”

At $ 55 million per seat, it’s no surprise that the first private space crew includes high-net-worth individuals like Connor and Pathy. The former said it is “a fair question and concern” that some may criticize the private flight of space only for the ultra-rich.

“We have a lot of national as well as international problems and challenges, but does that mean we should forget about the future?” Connor asked. “And, if you really think about the future, my point is that space is the next big frontier, so shouldn’t we try to explore it and, in some ways, try to be a pioneer in that?”

López-Alegría characterized the mission as “the first crack in the door to the democratization of space,” closely following NASA’s 2019 decision to allow private missions to visit the ISS. NASA will charge each person $ 35,000 a day on board, as compensation for necessary services, such as food and data use.

“Right now it’s not a very democratic demographic because of the cost of flights, but we fully anticipate that costs will start to go down,” Lopez-Alegría said. “At some point we’ll be able to offer them to the man on the street. It’s going to take a while, but that’s the goal and you have to start somewhere.”

For Connor’s part, he called for critics of private space flight to “think long-term” in 25 years or more.

“Will it be so weird for people to go into space? I think and I hope the answer is no. So someone has to start it, someone has to do the exploration and set the standards, and so we hope that the people look at it that way, ”Connor said.

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