- Space tourists have been flying in orbit since a millionaire made the first flight of its kind in 2001.
- Now, the startup Axiom Space has chartered the first totally private orbital mission, called Ax-1, which can be launched as early as October.
- Flight commander Michael López-Alegría, a former NASA astronaut, will be accompanied by three private passengers, probably including Tom Cruise and film director Doug Liman.
- “It is important to me that our team is respected,” López-Alegría told Insider. “I don’t want to make excuses to anyone for not liking us.”
- Visit the Business Insider home page for more stories.
This year, a private company can rent a private spaceship, fill it with private passengers and place it in orbit in the hands of a private astronaut.
The expedition is destined to be the first of its kind, and the gravity of that responsibility has not gone unnoticed by its commander, Michael López-Alegría, a retired NASA astronaut who became vice president of business development for Axiom Space, which is financing the historic flight.
“I really want this team – which is setting the standard for commercial human space flight forever, if you really think about it – to be the best we can be,” López-Alegría recently told Insider in an extensive interview.
Called Ax-1, the mission could be launched in October in a Crew Dragon spacecraft on a Falcon 9 rocket, both built by SpaceX, the aerospace company founded by Elon Musk.
Read More: SpaceX is looking to raise another big round of financing and wants to double its valuation to up to $ 92 billion
López-Alegría will serve as commander of the mission, and joining him will be Israeli businessman and former fighter pilot Eytan Stibbe. Although not officially announced, all evidence suggests that the other two passengers will be actor Tom Cruise and film director Doug Liman. The crew will go to the International Space Station, stay for about a week (where Cruise and Liman plan to make a film) and return to Earth.
“I only met one of them personally, just due to the circumstances of COVID,” said López-Alegría. “But I feel like I started to get to know them very well and ironically, although they are private astronauts, these three individuals in particular feel like people who could have been selected as astronauts before – which means I feel that they all have the right thing. “
But López-Alegría made it clear that he did not plan to be easy with them.
‘I have to play the good cop and the bad cop with them’
Four astronauts launch themselves into space on November 15 aboard SpaceX’s “Resilience” Crew Dragon spacecraft.
Joel Kowsky / NASA
In 2001, millionaire businessman and engineer Dennis Tito became the first orbital space tourist to pay for his own ticket, flying aboard the Russian Soyuz spacecraft to the ISS. The resistance and objections from NASA leadership and astronauts were numerous and vigorous.
“The argument that NASA used was that I was not qualified,” Tito told Forbes in 2017. But he noted that Russia has trained cosmonauts for four decades. “It was an insult to suggest that they would slip into someone who was not trained,” he said. “For me, writing the check was a small part of that. For eight months I trained at the cosmonaut center outside Moscow, at a Soviet-style military base. I lived in a two-room apartment, made my own bed and cooked my meals. . “
Tito opened the door for many others like him, ultimately helping to change minds within NASA – including that of López-Alegría.
“I was not very happy to fly with a private astronaut in 2006 and, in fact, I flew home with another private astronaut. I was not very excited about it,” he said. “But my experience with the first – Anousheh Ansari – really changed my perspective. In fact, that’s why I entered the commercial space, because of that experience.”
After some time at Axiom, which wants to charter a few private missions to the ISS each year, López-Alegría raised his hand to command the first. With four space flights under his belt and previous experience with private passengers, it emerged as the natural choice when the question arose among Axiom’s leadership.
“My job as a commander is to try to identify everyone’s strengths and weaknesses, including mine, and build the strongest team possible using that knowledge intelligently. I have great confidence that this crew will not only succeed, but will also exceed NASA expectations “. he said of Ax-1.
Eytan Stibbe, a millionaire businessman and former Israeli fighter pilot.
Yossi Zeliger (CC BY-SA 3.0)
López-Alegría says that Axiom will begin training the crew about four months before launch, although this is likely to extend due to frequent slips in the rocket launch schedule. He intends to make good use of that time.
“It’s an interesting needle that I need to stick. On the one hand, I firmly believe that human space flight is possible for the vast majority of the population. You don’t have to be Superman, you don’t have to be Einstein, you don’t have to be Da Vinci. You just need to be open-minded and willing to learn, “said López-Alegría.
On the other hand, added López-Alegría, they need to be professional, prepared and punctual – and he is prepared to switch between the sergeant instructor and the mother of the den to encourage them in whatever way is necessary.
“I have to play the good cop and the bad cop with them,” he said. “I think the biggest message is that we are a family as a team. We really have to work together as a team, we have to learn to communicate and we have to defend each other. I think we are already on the path to success.”
The serious start of a commercial era in human space flight
An illustration of AxStation, the first private space station designed and built by Axiom Space.
Axiom Space
López-Alegría says he will be extremely vigilant with his crew, not just because of the bets on his company, but in the entire commercial space flight venture.
In fact, despite NASA’s historic objections to in-flight space tourists, the agency recently accepted the idea. In 2019, she announced that private citizens could stay in the U.S. modules at a cost of about $ 35,000 a night. A year later, NASA began funding efforts to help build private replacements for the ISS, which will be deorbited around 2030.
Axiom, for its part, wants to build a multi-module installation in orbit called Axiom Station, or AxStation, before the ISS is destroyed.
“NASA people began to realize that the ISS was a finite resource and that, in order to have a successor, we needed to start planting the seeds of an economy in low Earth orbit. Then, they started to open their arms more and more to commercial ideas, “he said.
Still, López-Alegría is aware that no matter how hard he and his crew work, it can be hard work to change minds within NASA, its corps of astronauts and other space agencies around the globe.
“It is important to me that our team is respected. But I realize that it is a difficult climb at the beginning; we are starting with a deficit. This is part of the reason why I don’t want to make any excuses for not liking us,” he said. “If they don’t like us, it’s not because we don’t perform well or we’re not ready, or we’re not capable, or we’re not good operators in the vehicle – it’s for some other reason that I think can be overcome with socialization and explanation and just being good ambassadors. “