Commerce reaches for the stars - 13th April 2022

The docking of a private crew with the International Space Station sees commercial space missions cross a new frontier. A SpaceX Dragon spacecraft carrying four Axiom Space astronauts blasted off a joint venture between Axiom, Elon Musk's company and NASA.

At the helm for Axiom's Ax-1 mission sat former NASA astronaut Michael Lopez-Alegria, who already has four space missions under his belt. The US-Spain dual national's commanding a self-funded crew. American real estate investor Larry Connor, Canadian investor and philanthropist Mark Pathy and Israeli former fighter pilot and investor Eytan Stibbe each covered their own passage.

However, the astronomical, though unconfirmed, $55 million fee for an 8 day space station sojourn doesn't include permission to stare into space. Taking selfies on their out of this world adventure comes second to the Axiom mission's 25 research projects. These include undertaking a trial of MIT self-assembling smart tiles for future space architecture, and cultivating micro tumours to advance early identification of cancers.

Axiom's crew's a brief addition to the International Space Station's main deployment, which currently features three US, one German and three Russian crew.

Meanwhile, with the International Space Station deorbiting some time in the 2030s, preparations are underway for Axiom's own commercial space station to be constructed and launched.