The International Space Station is already a very successful project between NASA, Roscosmos, JAXA, ESA, and CSA. But why not take it even a step further? Axiom Space, a private US space station manufacturer and service provider from Houston, announced the signing of a contract with SpaceX.
The purpose is to use a Crew Dragon spaceship and fly three passengers and an Axiom-trained commander to the International Space Station.
The flight will occur by the second half of 2021
If it all goes according to the plan, the flight will occur during the second half of the next year, it will last for 10 days, and the passengers will have to pay money for it. The Axiom CEO Michael Suffredini suggests that the mission also has the purpose of making this kind of initiatives to become regularly:
This history-making flight will represent a watershed moment in the march toward universal and routine access to space,
This will be just the first of many missions to ISS to be completely crewed and managed by Axiom Space – a first for a commercial entity. Procuring the transportation marks significant progress toward that goal, and we’re glad to be working with SpaceX in this effort.
The International Space Station continues its activities on the Earth’s orbit, and it doesn’t look like it plans of ever going easy on them. On April 9, Roscosmos (the Russian space agency) will send two new Russian astronauts into space, aboard of a Soyuz-2.1a booster. The lift-off will take place from Site 31 at Russia’s Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan, and the final purpose is simple: the two astronauts will be joining the crew of the International Space Station.
Therefore, the operators of the space station don’t seem to rest, and it’s understandable. Who knows what space wonders they could miss if they’re not paying enough attention.
