International Space Station
First all-private crew: space tourists are back
Group photo on the International Space Station. There have been individual space tourists on the ISS several times, but the so-called Ax-1 mission was the first completely private crew. Photo: NASA/dpa
© dpa-infocom GmbH
50 million euros for a few days on the International Space Station? It was worth it for some wealthy businessmen. Now they are back on earth – but much later than planned.
A group of space tourists from the International Space Station are back on Earth. On Monday, the capsule of the four men touched down as planned in the Atlantic off the coast of Florida. Previously, their departure from the ISS had been postponed several times due to the weather.
The group – consisting of Spanish-American astronaut Michael López-Alegría, US entrepreneur Larry Connor, Israeli entrepreneur Eytan Stibbe and Canadian investor Mark Pathy – departed Cape Cosmodrome on April 8 in a Crew Dragon space capsule Canaveral in the US state of Florida.
The trip to the ISS was organized by the private space company Axiom Space, in cooperation with the US space agency Nasa and SpaceX, a company owned by billionaire Elon Musk.
There have been individual space tourists on the ISS several times, but the so-called Ax-1 mission was the first completely private crew.
Delayed return
The Axiom fliers were only supposed to stay aboard the station for eight days – because of the weather problems, this has now become a good two weeks. In addition to enjoying weightlessness and unique views of Earth, the astronauts should also conduct more than 25 scientific experiments.
According to media reports, the Axiom passengers each paid around 55 million dollars (about 50 million euros) for the flight. But they don’t see themselves as space tourists, Commander López-Alegría had emphasized in advance. “I think space tourism has an important role to play, but that’s not the point here. This is definitely not a vacation for my crew members.”