{"id":17773,"date":"2020-03-06T01:59:30","date_gmt":"2020-03-05T17:59:30","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wp-productionenv-bjg9h2g2bgg5b8aa.southeastasia-01.azurewebsites.net\/news\/axiom-space-makes-deal-with-spacex-to-send-customers-to-space-station-next-year\/"},"modified":"2020-03-06T01:59:30","modified_gmt":"2020-03-05T17:59:30","slug":"axiom-space-makes-deal-with-spacex-to-send-customers-to-space-station-next-year","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/news\/axiom-space-makes-deal-with-spacex-to-send-customers-to-space-station-next-year\/","title":{"rendered":"Axiom Space makes deal with SpaceX to send customers to space station next year"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"SpaceX
An artist\u2019s conception shows SpaceX\u2019s Crew Dragon space taxi docking with the International Space Station. (SpaceX \/ NASA Illustration)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Axiom Space says it\u2019s signed a contract with SpaceX to fly three paying passengers and an Axiom-trained commander to the International Space Station aboard a Crew Dragon spaceship as soon as the second half of next year.<\/p>\n

If Axiom Space, SpaceX and NASA can stick to the schedule, that would qualify the 10-day trip as the first honest-to-goodness privately funded mission to the space station. Paying passengers have been traveling to the space station aboard Russian Soyuz spacecraft since 2001, but those missions piggybacked on regular crew-rotation flights.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis history-making flight will represent a watershed moment in the march toward universal and routine access to space,\u201d Axiom CEO Michael Suffredini said in a news release. \u201cThis will be just the first of many missions to ISS to be completely crewed and managed by Axiom Space \u2013 a first for a commercial entity. Procuring the transportation marks significant progress toward that goal, and we\u2019re glad to be working with SpaceX in this effort.\u201d<\/p>\n

The flight would take advantage of a Crew Dragon craft that was developed as a space taxi for NASA\u2019s use.<\/p>\n

\u201cThanks to Axiom and their support from NASA, privately crewed missions will have unprecedented access to the space station, furthering the commercialization of space and helping usher in a new era of human exploration,\u201d said Gwynne Shotwell, SpaceX\u2019s president and chief operating officer.<\/p>\n

Last year, NASA set up an arrangement that would allow for up to two private-astronaut missions per year.<\/p>\n

Axiom would like to take maximum advantage of those opportunities. It already has a Space Act Agreement with NASA that would allow the company to send its customers to the space station, as \u201cprecursor missions\u201d clearing the way for Axiom to launch its own space habitat. Axiom said further discussions with NASA are underway to establish the follow-up agreements necessary for its planned missions.<\/p>\n

Suffredini should be well-placed to navigate those discussions: He was NASA\u2019s manager for the space station program until he left the space agency in 2015 and joined Axiom.<\/p>\n

The precise cost of the ride was not mentioned today, but in 2018, Axiom said it was targeting $55 million per seat as its price point.<\/p>\n