It is a sign of the times that the first manned flight of 2024 will be a private flight to the International Space Station carried out by SpaceX on behalf of Axiom Space. This mission, which takes a backup astronaut from the European Space Agency on board, is interesting because it appears to represent a “change in trend” in the recent history of human tourist flights with flights having a professional rather than recreational purpose.
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Overnight from Wednesday to Thursday, the SpaceX Falcon 9 will launch Axiom Space's third mission (Ax-3) to the International Space Station (ISS). The four crew members will join the orbital complex aboard the SpaceX Crew Dragon, the same vehicle used by NASA and ESA's professional astronauts during crew rotation.
The mission will continue to be led by Hispanic American Michael Lopez Alegría, a former NASA astronaut who has already had three shuttle flights, a stay on the International Space Station and 10 extravehicular flights. The mission will last 14 days during which 30 experiments and technology demonstrations will be carried out. Outside.
One of ESA's reserve astronauts on the Ax-3 crew
This exclusively European crew includes the Italian Walter Viladi, a colonel of the Italian Air Force, having already made a suborbital flight with Virgin Galactic in June 2023, the Turkish Alper Cezeravci, a colonel of the Air Force, and the Swede Markus Wandt, who is from the European Space Agency. Reserve astronaut from the class of 2022 – his mission was funded by the Swedish Space Agency, while the European Space Agency took care of his training for a few weeks at the European Space Center in Cologne.
Although his mission will last only 14 days, unlike the six-month missions of ESA astronauts, the presence of Markus Wandt, as a backup astronaut, on board the International Space Station in front of some ESA astronauts, It may be surprising but it is not surprising to us.
A mission that foretells the future of “tourist” flights.
Indeed, this Axiom mission seems to anticipate the future of private crewed flights in orbit, where we will be looking at more missions funded by countries, institutes or agencies, rather than purely tourist flights.
This crew preparing to travel to the International Space Station, where everyone participates in professional activities in space, summarizes our analysis and confirms this shift towards space missions with a professional career and not entertainment for the future, funded and led by institutions and not by tourism initiatives that will ultimately be few in number. This trend is also observed with suborbital flights of Virgin Galactic and Blue Origin, where we are seeing this development through flights with a “military” and scientific mission.
Axiom Space's fourth manned mission
Axiom Space won't stop there, as it is also planning an AX-4 mission later this year, which will likely be led by former NASA astronaut Peggy Whitson, who holds the record for 675 days in space, the most of any astronaut. Other space in the world. It is not scheduled to be released before August.
