From left, the four crew members of the Axiom Space Ax-3 mission, customer Marcus Wandt of Sweden, Axiom Space chief astronaut Michael López-Alegría, customer Walter Villadei of Italy, and customer Alper Gezeravci of Turkey. (Axiom Space/TNS)
(Tribune News Service) — Commercial astronaut trips from the Space Coast are becoming commonplace, with Axiom Space about to send up another crew from Kennedy Space Center this week.
In what is slated to be the first of up to six human spaceflights from Florida this year, Ax-3 is contracting with SpaceX for a ride up to the International Space Station. The mission is set to send its four crew aboard the Crew Dragon Freedom atop a Falcon 9 rocket from KSC’s Launch Pad 39-A, targeting liftoff at 5:11 p.m. Wednesday.
Flying to space for the sixth time and the second time as commander of an Axiom mission is former NASA astronaut and current Axiom employee Michael López-Alegría, who said he’s not getting tired of the gig.
“It’s a dream come true for me. I will gladly continue to fly … the soul is willing as long as the body is willing to do so,” he said. “This is really a privilege for somebody in my position to be able to go back to space first of all, but especially to lead this very well prepared and expertly trained group. And it never gets old.”
That group includes three more paying customers, but for the first time, none are millionaires buying tickets that on the Axiom 1 mission were $55 million pop, a price that company CEO Michael Suffradini said had not gone down.
Instead, the crew is made up of men sponsored by three governments: Italian Air Force Col. Walter Villadei, who will act as pilot; mission specialist Alper Gezeravcı of Turkey; and mission specialist and European Space Agency project astronaut Marcus Wandt of Sweden.
All three have served in their respective nations’ air forces, and the quartet is aiming for a 14-day stay aboard the orbiting ISS.
Gezeravcı will become the first astronaut from Turkey.
“We have been long waiting for this mission to come real,” he said. “The children of this nation, we have been always blocked with the limit of the sky that we could see with our bare eyes. And now this mission is opening that curtain all the way.”
Wandt’s involvement marks the first time Axiom has worked with a crew member who’s working for an agency that already has access to the ISS, as the ESA is one of its international partners.
“How Sweden came together and together with ESA and Axiom and all the support from NASA and SpaceX to make this happen is fantastic,” he said. “I’m so proud to be in the center of that and being a part of pioneering a new way for Europe to gain access to space, and to increase the frequency and the presence of not only European persons but also European science and the benefit for what we can do here on Earth.”
The final European customer on board, Villadei, said he hopes to further Italy’s footprint following up on his recent short trip to space with three other countrymates aboard Virgin Galactic’s first operational flight of its VSS Unity. He notes Italy’s hand working with its European partners in space is only going to grow.
“This is a big opportunity to strengthen the European role as a whole in this new chapter in space exploration,” he said.
López-Alegría has European ties as well with dual U.S. and Spanish citizenship. He previously flew on the Ax-1 mission in 2022 and with NASA on three space shuttle missions. He also took a Soyuz flight and spent 215 days aboard the ISS.
He is one of two former NASA astronauts who have led Axiom missions, along with Peggy Whitson, who flew on Ax-2. NASA requires each commercial visit to the ISS to be led by a former NASA astronaut. Axiom Space to date has won all four commercial visit opportunities, with the Ax-4 mission set for as early as October.
“The first time you go, you’re just sort of hanging on for dear life and enjoying the ride, but I think you appreciate each one a little bit more, especially when you realize just how rare an opportunity it is,” López-Alegría said. “Axiom would definitely like to continue doing private astronaut missions. We’ll probably have other commanders in the future, but as long as they ask me to fly, my hand will be raised.”
In time, the company wants to build its own section on the ISS including its own docking spaces. It’s working on the first of three planned modules that could fly up and attach as early as 2026. When NASA, Russia and its partners decide to deorbit the ISS, the Axiom modules will remain behind and become Axiom Station. It’s one of several commercial space stations in the works that could be in orbit before the end of the decade.
“These are what we call precursor missions. So the idea is for us to establish the processes and the organizations operationally within the company to be able to sustain human spaceflight missions,” López-Alegría said.
The company’s goal is to not only open space up to more people, countries and researchers but to help build “the market for those missions in the future,” he said.
“We want that commercial space station to be a destination not only for the users of the ISS today but also many more people,” he said. “It really gets back to developing the organic capability within the company to do human spaceflight, which, despite how I hope we make it look easy, is actually very, very complicated.”
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