![]() The three paying customers completed about 15 weeks of training before the flight. They’re slated to parachute to a splashdown landing aboard their spacecraft Wednesday afternoon, according to NASA, if weather conditions allow. They’ll spend the rest of the day aboard the 13-foot-wide capsule as it maneuvers back toward the edge of the Earth’s thick atmosphere. ![]() The four crew members - Michael Lopez-Alegría, a former NASA astronaut turned Axiom employee who is commanding the mission Israeli businessman Eytan Stibbe Canadian investor Mark Pathy and Ohio-based real estate magnate Larry Connor - are slated to leave the space station aboard their SpaceX Crew Dragon capsule on Tuesday around 10:00 pm ET. The mission has set off yet another round of debate about whether people who pay their way to space should be referred to as “astronauts,” though it should be noted a trip to the ISS requires a far larger investment of both time and money than taking a brief suborbital ride on a rocket built by companies like Blue Origin or Virgin Galactic. ![]() The mission, called AX-1, was brokered by the Houston, Texas-based startup Axiom Space, which books rocket rides, provides all the necessary training, and coordinates flights to the ISS for anyone who can afford it. The first all-private mission to the International Space Station is slated to complete the final leg of its journey this week, capping off what will be about a 12-day, multimillion-dollar journey. ![]()
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |