– The second oldest person to travel in space on the crew of the first full-private orbital space mission, the second Israeli in space, the 11th Canadian to fly in space and the first former NASA astronaut to return to the International Space Station, the company behind the flight has announced.
Xxiom Space on Tuesday (January 26) unveiled its customers for its first privately funded and managed mission to the International Space Station (ISS). The Axiom Mission 1 (X-1) flight is being arranged under a commercial agreement with NASA.
SpaceX Dragon is slated to launch on the spacecraft: Larry Connor, an American real estate and technology entrepreneur; Eaton Stebbay, a businessman and former Israeli fighter pilot; Mark Pethy, Canadian investor and philanthropist; And Michael Lopez-Allegria, a retired NASA astronaut who logged in for about 260 days on four previous missions.
Lopez-Allegria, who retired from NASA in 2012 and is now vice president at Axiom, will lead the 10-day X-1 mission. Connor, who has flown more than 16 aircraft and participated in the US National Aerotic Tick Championships, will serve as the dragon’s pilot – the first private astronaut to pilot an orbital space mission. SpaceX designed its crewed dragon capsule for selfish flight, requiring only human input in emergency situations.
Depending on other activities scheduled on the space station, the X-1 mission could begin as early as January 2022. Axiom had earlier announced that Lopez-Allegria would fly as X-1 commander in September 2020. Israeli President Reuven Rivlin announced that Stebbe would join the mission two months later in November.
Released Tuesday live on ABC’s Good Morning America, it was the first time Connor and Pathi had been nominated for an X-1 mission.
At the age of 1 year, Connor will become the second oldest person to fly in space (second only to the late 77-year-old Glenn, who made his second spaceflight at the end). Conn also heads two financial technology companies and founded Connor Group Kids & Community Partners, a luxury apartment investment firm with more than અ 1 billion in assets.
In addition to flying, Connor also participates in off-road racing, rafting over the Zambezi River in Africa and the Futalefu River in South America, and has called Mount Kilimanjaro in Africa and Mount Rainier in Washington State.
The five-year-old will become Canada’s first so-called “space tourist” after nine Canadian space agency astronauts and co-founder of Cirque du Soleil, becoming the 11th Canadian to fly into space.
Pathi is the CEO and chairman of Maverick, a privately owned investment and financing company, and chairman of the board of Stingray Group, a Montreal-based music, media and technology company. He also serves on the board of the Pathi Family Foundation and is a member of the board and executive committee of both the Danes La Ru and the Montreal Children’s Hospital Foundation.
Haifa-born Stebbe will be the second Israeli to enter space, following in the footsteps of his friend Ilan Ramon, who died tragically on the space shuttle Columbia in 2003. “Eaton Steebe will fly with a blue and white flag. [on] Her uniform, reminds us that the sky is no longer the limit! ” Said last year. “Thanks to the Ramon Foundation for supporting the initiative.”
Stebab founded the Vital Capital Fund, which focuses primarily on business and financing ventures in Africa. He is also one of the founders and is a board member of the Center for African Studies at Ben-Gurion University and a board member of several non-governmental organizations dedicated to education, arts and culture. At age 63, Steve will become the third largest person to enter orbit.
Lopez-Allegria will be the first NASA astronaut to return to orbit and visit the ISS. He will also be 63 when he launches, but is five months younger than Steve.
“I’m just so grateful for this opportunity,” Lopez-Allegria told Collector Space in her first visit after choosing to command the X-1. “This sounds like a gift from God and I want to appreciate it.”
Exaom Space, established by Michael Suffredini, NASA’s former space station program manager, will organize training and overseeing flight operations for the AX-1 crew, with Lopez-Allegria serving as the company’s representative while in space. Former NASA astronaut Peggy Whitson will train as a backup of Lopez-Allegria. (US-based entrepreneur John Schoffner, air show pilot and race car driver, Connor will back up.)
The X-1 mission is the first in a series of space station flights, created by actor Tom Cruise and director Doug Lyman, a precursor to launching and integrating new commercial modules into the ISS. The Xxiom segment will serve as a testbed for the company’s planned free-flying xxiom station.
The X-1 will be the first full-private crew mission in Earth orbit. Between 2001 and 2009, seven private astronauts (spaceflight participants or so-called “space tourists”) embarked on eight self-funded trips to the ISS. Their flights, organized by the US space tourism company Space Adventure, were built on the Russian Soyuz spacecraft by professional cosmonauts and NASA astronauts (including Lopez-Allegria).
The April 2000 Russian mission, the Soyuz TM-30 – a dock with the former space station Mirny – was funded by the company Mircorp, but its career was carried out by Russian cosmonauts.
