First private ISS crew announced by Axiom Space; company touts 'the start of a new era'

The first private space station crew was introduced on Tuesday, which consists of three men who are each paying USD 55 million to fly on a SpaceX rocket. They will be led by a former NASA astronaut now working for Axiom Space, the Houston company that arranged the trip for next January.

'We are providing that opportunity'

"This is the first private flight to the International Space Station. It's never been done before," said Axiom's chief executive and president Mike Suffredini, a former space station program manager for NASA. "While mission commander Michael Lopez-Alegria is well known in space circles, the other three guys are just people who want to be able to go to space, and we're providing that opportunity," Suffredini told The Associated Press.

The first crew will spend eight days at the space station and will take one or two days to get there aboard a SpaceX Dragon capsule following liftoff from Cape Canaveral.

Axiom's first customers include Larry Connor, a real estate and tech entrepreneur from Dayton, Ohio, Canadian financier Mark Pathy and Israeli businessman Eytan Stibbe, a close friend of Israel's first astronaut Ilan Ramon, who was killed in the space shuttle Columbia disaster in 2003.

"These guys are all very involved and doing it for kind of for the betterment of their communities and countries, and so we couldn't be happier with this makeup of the first crew because of their drive and their interest," Suffredini said. Each of these first paying customers intends to perform scientific research in orbit, he said, along with educational outreach.

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According to NASA's 2019 price list, it should cost $11,250 per crew member per day to use the life support systems and toilet on the ISS, $22,500 per day for all necessary supplies such as food, air, and medical supplies, and $42 per kilowatt-hour for power, Business Insider reported.

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Each of the private astronauts had to pass medical tests and will get 15 weeks of training, according to Suffredini. The 70-year-old Connor will become the second-oldest person to fly in space, after John Glenn's shuttle flight in 1998 at age 77. He'll also serve under Lopez-Alegria as the capsule pilot.

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Axiom plans about two private missions a year to the space station. It also is working to launch its own live-in compartments to the station beginning in 2024. This section would be detached from the station once it's retired by NASA and the international partners, and become its own private outpost.

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(With AP inputs)