Ax-1 crew completes training for historic mission to the ISS

After months of training, the Ax-1 Crew is getting ready to head into quarantine. To mark this final phase of preparation, Axiom Space released new photos of the Ax-1 crew. The photos, taken in Houston, shows the crew in their Axiom Space flight suits.  

Completing hundreds of hours of training, exceeding NASA requirements, the Ax-1 crew is set to be the first all-private crew mission to the International Space Station (ISS). The four-person multinational crew is composed of Commander Michael López-Alegría of the USA/Spain, Pilot Larry Connor of the USA, Mission Specialist Eytan Stibbe of Israel, and Mission Specialist Mark Pathy of Canada.

To prepare for the 10-day mission, including eight days onboard the ISS, each crew member completed training in safety, health, ISS systems, launch site operations, emergency protocols, and additional training for research and technology demonstration payloads. While on the station, the Ax-1 astronauts will complete over 25 science experiments and technology demonstrations. The Ax-1 mission is a pathfinder mission for Axiom Space’s Axiom Station, the world’s first commercial space station. 

View more images with the Ax-1 crew members on our Mission Updates

NASA Selects Second Private Astronaut Mission to Space Station

NASA has selected Axiom Space for the second private astronaut mission to the International Space Station. NASA will negotiate with Axiom on a mission order agreement for the Axiom Mission 2 (Ax-2) targeted to launch between fall 2022 and late spring 2023.

The Verge - Axiom Space reveals science that will be done on first crewed flight to the ISS

Private space habitat company Axiom is revealing the science that the company’s first private astronauts will do when they travel to the International Space Station (ISS) next year. The research experiments include working with stem cells to gauge how space impacts aging as well as performing a two-way 3D hologram projection demonstration using a Microsoft HoloLens.

Axiom Space reveals robust microgravity research portfolio for first-ever private mission to visit International Space Station

Axiom Space, a leader in human spaceflight and human-rated space infrastructure, announced today the research underpinning its historic Ax-1 mission targeted for launch to the International Space Station in February 2022. On the first fully private mission to ever visit the ISS, the multinational crew of four private astronauts with Axiom’s Michael López-Alegría as commander will pioneer a new phase of microgravity utilization amongst non-government entities – laying the groundwork for a full realization of low-Earth orbit’s possibilities and bringing critical findings back down to Earth.

Axiom Space reveals winners of inaugural STARS Scholarship, incubating new ideas for microgravity research

If you could access a platform flying free from the shackles of gravity, what breakthrough idea could you bring to life?

On March 1, 2021, Axiom Space asked this question when announcing its inaugural STARS – Science Technology Art and Research in Space – Scholarship competition. Fifty-nine applications representing 105 individuals from 11 countries flooded in, positing new and potentially revolutionary ways to leverage the microgravity environment’s unique conditions to further human progress on Earth and in space.

Following careful consideration, Axiom is pleased to now announce and congratulate the projects and teams selected as the inaugural STARS Scholarship recipients.

The Microgravity Printed Circuit Board submitted by:

• Iyngkarran Kumar from Durham University (United Kingdom)

The printed circuit board (PCB) is the foundation of electronic devices; this project reimagines PCB manufacturing aided by the removal of gravitational forces, allowing for a broader range of production techniques that are not possible on Earth. This could, in turn, result in higher-performing and highly compact PCBs and thus breakthrough impacts on future electronic device development.

Radiation Deflecting Interactive Shield (RADISH) submitted by:

• Paulina Umansky, University of California Berkeley (United States)

• Alberto Meunier, Santa Monica College (United States)

• Angel Vasquez, Sacramento City College (United States)

This project aims to study and mature Radiation Deflecting Interactive Shields (RADISH), a compact, scalable radiation shielding system usable on almost any structure in space. This innovative technology, using powerful magnetic fields, is designed to detect incoming radiation and use the minimum amount of energy necessary to deflect – offering radical promise in enabling longer-duration human spaceflight and deep space exploration.

The Extreme Biominers submitted by:

• Arunava Poddar, SRM Institute of Science and Technology, Chennai (India)

• Anurup Mohanty, SRM Institute of Science and Technology, Chennai (India)

• Kashish Gupta, Government College for Girls, Ludhiana; Panjab University (India)

• Navaneel Sarangi, St. Xavier’s College, Kolkata (India)

Biomining, a technique that uses microbes to mine waste or extract metals from rock ores, is used in various applications on Earth and has been demonstrated in space. This project proposes the use of extremophiles — microbes that thrive in extreme environments — as "miner microbes" to perform biomining in a realistic space environment with multiple extremes like radiation, low pressure, and fluctuating temperatures, with the potential to solve many of space mining’s technological and logistical challenges.

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Each team will receive a $1,000 USD cash prize toward further project development and/or for scholarship funds.

Tech Crunch - The Googler who came to monetize space

Following its billion-dollar valuation earlier this year, Axiom Space, builder of the next International Space Station, recruited Google’s Tejpaul Bhatia to become its first chief revenue officer, responsible for the growth and monetization of the space ecosystem.

Ars Technica - A once-quiet battle to replace the space station suddenly is red hot

The sprawling International Space Station—so long a beacon of hope, unity, and technological achievement; so gleaming and bright it can be seen from a city's downtown as it passes overhead—is nearer the end of its life than the beginning. And time is running out to replace the station before it's gone.

A major step forward in the construction of Axiom Station

Thales Alenia Space’s Turin plant recently took a major step forward in the construction of the primary structure of the Axiom commercial space station’s first module.

The Manufacturing Readiness Review was completed on September 21, allowing the start of welding operations on the pressurized module cone panels, key parts in the pressurized section of the Axiom Hub 1.

The actual welding operations kicked off just a few days ago, a major achievement for Thales Alenia Space since it marked the first use of the friction stir welding process in Europe to construct such a large pressurized module!

Quantum Origin - Creating secure communications in space

Axiom Space is laying down the core layer of infrastructure for low-Earth orbit operations, as it builds the commercial successor to the International Space Station (ISS). Axiom has formed a partnership with Quantinuum to use Quantum Origin as a secure communication option for commercial customers using the ISS and, later, its successor spacecraft.

In its bid to further human advancement and enable the whole world to benefit from low-Earth orbit, Axiom is creating the tech stack to serve the purposes of the future users of the spacecraft. These will include academic and research teams, businesses and civilian guests. Quantum-enhanced security will be an option offered to protect the communication of information from the spacecraft back to Earth.

Quantum Origin cryptographic keys, seeded with verifiable quantum entropy, will provide certainty that datasets derived from a range of activities, such as space manufacturing, experiments in microgravity biology or gene sequencing, are securely transmitted. In its first use, Axiom sent a quantum encrypted message from the ISS, which read: “Hello Quantum World.”

Axiom’s first use of the Quantum Origin platform took place in summer 2021 and will be an option after Axiom begins commercial flights to the ISS.

Thales Alenia Space to provide the first two pressurized modules for Axiom Station

Rome 15 July, 2021 – Thales Alenia Space, Joint Venture between Thales and Leonardo, and Axiom Space of Houston, Texas (USA), have signed the final contract for the development of two key pressurized elements of Axiom Station - the world’s first commercial space station. Scheduled for launch in 2024 and 2025 respectively, the two elements will originally be docked to the International Space Station (ISS), marking the birth of the new Axiom Station segment. The value of the contract is 110 Million Euro.

NASA - Axiom Space Private Astronauts Begin Training at NASA's Johnson Space Center

Michael López-Alegría is pictured training at the Space Vehicle Mockup Facility at NASA’s Johnson Space Center in Houston for Axiom Mission 1 (Ax-1) to the International Space Station. Private astronauts of Axiom Space began learning about space station systems and procedures in preparation for their planned stay aboard the orbiting laboratory. The mission is scheduled for no earlier than January 2022.