Left to right: Michael López-Alegría, Mark Pathy, Larry Connor, Eytan Stibbe.
VIDEOS FROM INTERNATIONAL SPACE STATION PROFESSIONAL
Though they do not have to worry about piloting their spacecraft, as the Crew Dragon is fully autonomous, they went through extensive studying of the capsule’s design, prepared for all sorts of emergency scenarios, and completed zero-gravity test flights to prepare them for space, much as professional astronauts do. 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.
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