Michael López-Alegría

Portrait for @ericof
by @ericof
2021-01-29T06:00:01+00:00
Science • Space
The first entirely private space crew will visit the International Space Station
Ax-1 mission crew
Ax-1 mission crew Credit: Axiom Space (Twitter Reproduction)

The proposed Ax-1 mission will use a SpaceX rocket to put three paying customers - American Larry Connor, Canadian Mark Pathy and Israeli Eytan Stibbe - into low-Earth orbit on the space station. Stibbe plans to do experiments for Israeli researchers, working with the Ramon Foundation and Israel's space agency. The crew will be led by former NASA astronaut and space station commander Michael López-Alegría.

Axiom hopes to arrange up to two trips per year, and the company also wants to build its own privately funded space station.