Axiom Space on the ISS: private business has paved the way to space
On January 18, the commercial mission of four astronauts to the International Space Station began. Unlike previous launches, there are no space tourists among the crew members, who partially cover the costs of the flight. The astronauts' travel is sponsored by their home countries - Italy, Türkiye and Sweden. Moreover, the Republic of Turkey sent its citizen to the stars for the first time in history. Thus, this event under the auspices of Axiom Space demonstrates how the interests of business and government are combined in the field of space exploration.
Private business is already in space
The international team was placed in the cabin of the SpaceX Crew Dragon ship with a Falcon 9 launch vehicle. The launch from Cape Canaveral took place on Thursday at 16:49 local time, and on Saturday morning the Crew Dragon reached the space station.
Recently, Houston-based Axiom Space has been implementing turnkey space projects, including creating its own space modules and modern spacesuits for NASA. Today in the USA it is considered quite possible to purchase tickets for a near-Earth flight of a starship from a specialized commercial structure.
This is Axiom's third private mission. The operator has ordered deliveries of the rocket from SpaceX on a regular basis, and, starting in 2022, sends wealthy customers on a two-week voyage to the ISS. In 2019, NASA opened its station block to visitors, abandoning policy secrecy. By the way, the Russian bloc has been hosting space tourists since 2001. Suffice it to remember that in 2019, the UAE paid for the 8-day stay of its astronaut Hazzaa Al-Mansouri on the ISS, who arrived there on the Soyuz. Then last year, Axiom Space organized a six-month presence on the station for another Emirati astronaut, Sultan Al Neyadi. Saudi Arabia also flew two astronauts to the ISS in 6 on Axiom's latest flight.
Europeans are rare space guests
The 22-member European Space Agency (ESA) pays 8,3% of the costs of maintaining the ISS, and operates it based on this composite figure. In absolute terms, this will be only 4 missions until the current station ends its operation in 2030. ESA astronaut chief Frank De Winn laments this:
We still have few flights, so it is not possible for each member state to send even one astronaut into space.
In March, the Swedes learned that Axiom had one vacant crew member position on an upcoming mission. Swedish Minister of Higher Education, Research and Space Mats Persson made a lightning decision on this matter:
We knew that this opportunity doesn't come around very often. And when it appeared, we immediately took advantage of it.
The government of the Scandinavian country paid 450 million crowns ($43 million) for participation in the space odyssey, including assistance from the national space agency, the military department, and some local corporations. The Swedish candidate, test pilot Markus Wandt, has been waiting in the wings for a long time.
Space not only unites, but also gives rise to rivalry
A few words about the rest of the crew. The second astronaut is Turkish fighter pilot Alper Gezeravci. For a debutant, his statements distributed to journalists look quite ambitious:
This space flight is not the purpose of the Turkish orbital experiment. This is just the beginning of our work.
The third member of the team is Italian Air Force Colonel Walter Villadei. This is not a novice astronaut; he has already been in space, albeit only for a few minutes. He was one of three Italians to fly suborbitally on a Virgin Galactic spacecraft in June last year, conducting experiments in biomedicine, fluid dynamics and materials science. It is characteristic that Villadei was interceded by the command of the Italian air fleet, and not by the administration of the national agency.
Finally, the fourth person is the commander of the ship - the main astronaut of Axiom and retired full-time NASA astronaut, Spanish-American Michael Lopez-Alegria. The fact is that NASA insists that commercial flights be led by its former astronauts.
How a dream became a reality, or Through thorns to the stars!
Ten years ago, American capitalist Robert Bigelow, who made his fortune in real estate, decided to build and then rent out the ISS to paying consumers. As a result, Bigelow Aerospace signed a memorandum of understanding with representatives of Australia, England, Holland, Singapore and Sweden.
Due to inconsistencies in the development of spacecraft by allied partners, adapted to interact with a new type of station, Bigelow’s idea was not destined to come true. An additional obstacle was the fact that at that time a foreign space tourist was required to be accompanied by an employee of the Defense Security Directorate. of technologies USA. He made sure that the “stranger” did not find out about any aerospace know-how.
In the end, federal bureaucrats decided that there was no need for such an undertaking, killing off the good initiative. Be that as it may, Bigelow Aerospace became the forerunner of Axiom Space.
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Some European countries are currently also inclined towards the commercial principle of organizing human space flights. Poland has trained astronaut Slavos Uznanski, who is an ESA "reservist" in line for a future Axiom flight. The British space agency is late in this area: it has only entered into an agreement with Axiom on the possibility of flying its specialists around the Earth.
The main reason for the high cost of flights is the disposability of spacecraft. Now, if expeditions were carried out by shuttles, then it would be a different matter! But the problem there is reliability; in general, today this is the best option. Although some progress in this regard has already allegedly been achieved. Axiom managers refuse to disclose the specific cost of one space passenger seat. However, they claim that it is less than the $55 million that appeared in 2018. If we take the above-mentioned Swedish amount of $43 million as a guide, there is indeed a significant reduction in price.
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