SpaceX Poised To Send First Private Crew To ISS For Axiom Space (theverge.com) 35
Loren Grush writes via The Verge: Tomorrow morning, SpaceX is set to launch yet another crew of four to the International Space Station from Florida -- but unlike most of the company's passenger flights, this new crop of flyers won't include any current NASA astronauts. All four members of the crew are civilians, flying with a commercial aerospace company called Axiom Space. Their flight will mark the first time a completely private crew has visited the ISS. It's a new type of human spaceflight mission and one that comes with a hefty price tag for its participants. Three of the four flyers have each paid a reported $55 million for their seats on SpaceX's crew capsule, called the Crew Dragon. The trio of novice spacefarers includes Canadian investor Mark Pathy, American real estate investor Larry Connor, and former Israeli Air Force pilot Eytan Stibbe. The commander of the trip is a spaceflight veteran: Michael Lopez-Alegria, a former NASA astronaut who has flown four missions to space and now serves as a vice president of Axiom.
Their mission, called Ax-1, is the latest in an emerging trend of completely private astronaut flights to orbit. [...] Axiom -- which strives to create a fleet of commercial space stations -- has arranged for three additional private crew missions to the ISS, just like Ax-1, to gear up for the creation of its first station. The company's goal is to "make space more accessible to everyone." "This really does represent the first step where a bunch of individuals who want to do something meaningful in low Earth orbit -- that aren't members of a government -- are able to take this opportunity," Mike Suffredini, Axiom's CEO and the former program manager of the ISS at NASA, said during a press conference. Though, until costs come down, such individuals will need a fat wallet.
Their mission, called Ax-1, is the latest in an emerging trend of completely private astronaut flights to orbit. [...] Axiom -- which strives to create a fleet of commercial space stations -- has arranged for three additional private crew missions to the ISS, just like Ax-1, to gear up for the creation of its first station. The company's goal is to "make space more accessible to everyone." "This really does represent the first step where a bunch of individuals who want to do something meaningful in low Earth orbit -- that aren't members of a government -- are able to take this opportunity," Mike Suffredini, Axiom's CEO and the former program manager of the ISS at NASA, said during a press conference. Though, until costs come down, such individuals will need a fat wallet.
Astronauts? (Score:3)
Since these guys are just along for the ride I don't think we call them astronauts.
In any case, I wonder what exactly you get for your tens of millions of dollars. It's not like there is a huge amount to do up there. The people actually working on the IIS will probably not be too keen on them getting under-foot, so to speak.
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Since these guys are just along for the ride I don't think we call them astronauts.
Wikipedia offers clarity on your assessment. We still count those lucky humans who have left our orbit in the hundreds. I think it's a fair title. They sure as hell paid enough for it. Pay me $55 million, and I'll call you the Queen of Mars.
In any case, I wonder what exactly you get for your tens of millions of dollars. It's not like there is a huge amount to do up there.
If you had the money and opportunity, you already know why you would go to outer space. No one blows $55 million on a trip and worries about the cost/benefit analysis, unless they are part-owner and expecting a profit to emerge somewhere.
Also, perspective. $55 mill
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I'm just thinking about Branson and the 2nd man to privately reach space, Jeff Bezos. Neither of them are official astronauts because they didn't contribute meaningfully to the flights.
Yeah, if I had a spare $55m I'd definitely go to space. I'd want to be more involved though. Do some science up there or some engineering, not just along for the ride.
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I'm just thinking about Branson and the 2nd man to privately reach space, Jeff Bezos. Neither of them are official astronauts because they didn't contribute meaningfully to the flights.
And neither of them were the "first" to privately reach space. It really is quite amazing how well their bullshit sells:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/... [wikipedia.org]
And if you're more referring to them funding their own venture to space, perhaps if Bezos and Branson weren't so busy racing to beat each others dick into orbit, they would have designed, engineered and planned a venture where they could have contributed a bit more than a been there, done that line in their resume.
And given the average mega-corps abili
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if I had a spare $55m I'd definitely go to space. I'd want to be more involved though. Do some science up there or some engineering, not just along for the ride.
Sounds like what Richard Garriott did on his week long stay on ISS. While his astronaut dad Owen was a astronaut (Skylab, Shuttle), Richard was able to go into orbit by making a lot of money with computer gaming and pay the Russians for a spot on Soyuz. Growing up he saw becoming an astronaut is quite exclusive which very few get such positions. He worked to make his flight meaningful, I don't know the details but he managed to find time performing amateur radio contacts and many SSTV transmissions.
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Before him there was that Japanese guy too. That was a work thing I guess.
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Wikipedia offers clarity on your assessment. We still count those lucky humans who have left our orbit in the hundreds. I think it's a fair title. They sure as hell paid enough for it. Pay me $55 million, and I'll call you the Queen of Mars.
If they pay me $55M then I'll call them whatever they want. But if they're paying someone else $55M then I'll just call them passengers and they can fuck right off or pay me if they don't like it. Since I haven't been paid to believe anything that isn't true, there's no reason for me to believe that they are anything more lofty.
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Didn't read the article? Axiom is planning to build their own space station. They hope to attach the first module to the ISS in a couple of years and then detach it to orbit on its own.
“This precursor mission is important, because not only are we developing the techniques that we’re going to be using communicating with the ground to space here in mission control at Axiom, but we’re also developing all the procedures and processes that make a spaceflight possible,”
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Since these guys are just along for the ride I don't think we call them astronauts.
I'm certain they had more training than the suborbital flights of BO and VG, it now brings up interesting question of who actually gets this title. Before nearly everyone had a professional job and trained to do that job, now give enough money you can be "an astronaut." As in difference between flight crew and passengers of airplanes, I say an astronaut is paid and trained professional. A space traveler is going for the ride. But wait, those travelers probably had to sign various documents, think of someone
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Every time I fly they teach me how to use the seatbelt and life preserver. So I must be trained.
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"a bunch of individuals who want to do something meaningful in low Earth orbit"
Looks like a joyride by entitled rich people to me.
What are they doing that will be "meaningful"?
What is this press release masturbatory horse shit (Score:3)
They might be contracting with Axiom Space, but they are flying with SpaceX. Whoever the fuck these Axiom fuckheads are, they are not flying anything. I wouldn't call them fuckheads except for this transparent attempt to make them more than they are, which is obviously sponsored.
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Trickle down works in exactly one sense, in that early adopters pay for refinement of technology which makes it cheaper. But it fails in all the other senses because those same wealthy people snap up all the profits produced by increases in worker productivity, and then some. And then they spend the money buying laws to let them keep it, and grab more too.
We could solve the problem at the government level if a) we stopped fighting over stupid shit, and b) stopped pretending we can ignore our government and
Re: Cheap thrills for the billionaire class (Score:2)
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A disturbing number of people disagree about the church and state thing - apparently they believe freedom of religion means you're free to live according to the rules of their religion.
And for separating money and power - it can't be done. When you spend a million dollars you inherently wield power equivalent to the 25 middle-class Americans working full time for a year that it can buy. The best we can aspire to is to prevent money from directly controlling political power (e.g. bribery, ahem, "campaign co
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p.s. Sayonara [arstechnica.com], OAN [arstechnica.com]!
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So either constant wars or billionaires - choose your poison
We seem to get both. In any case we don't need them to have so many billions. I'm starting to come around to the idea of a cap, since we can't seem to get a fairly graduated system... because they lobby against it. So fuck 'em.
Future space-hoteliers (Score:2)
They have to check the competition.
Location, location, location.
As usual (Score:1)
"To everyone" (Score:1)
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I've heard that, in energy costs, going into space is roughly comparable to flying one of the very long range flights to Australia.
So, even if they manage to reduce the costs accordingly, it's only for people that have enough money for a long range flight to Australia... which is incredibly far from "everyone".
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The $55 million cost could be reduced by 1000x (0.1% of it's current cost), and it'd still be $55,000. I hardly consider that accessible to everyone.
$55,000 is what a mid-range pickup truck costs nowadays and I don't see a shortage of rednecks waiting in line to buy one.
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Banks are willing to give loans to people in order to buy those, and the owners pay them off over time. I don't expect banks to hand out loans to the average person so they can go on a joy ride into space.
They continued to give money to the con artist despite him reneging on loans or declaring bankruptcy so he didn't have to pay.
Interesting factoid (Score:2)
In an interesting coincidence, today also marks the sixth anniversary of SpaceX's first successful drone ship landing. On 8 April 2016, a Falcon 9 first stage landed on Just Read the Instructions.