Tom Cruise’s SpaceX Ride Introduces New Space Partner

• Space tourists have been flying around the orbit since a millionaire first flew in 2001.
• The launch of Axiom Space has hired the first all-private orbital mission, called Ax-1, which is likely to begin as early as October 2021.
• Flight Commander Michael López-Alegría, a former NASA astronaut, will join three private passengers, most likely Tom Cruise and director Doug Liman.
• “It is important to me that our crew is respected,” López-Alegría told Insider. “I do not want to apologize to anyone for not liking us.”
• Visit Business Insider’s homepage for more stories.

This year, a private company can rent a private spaceship, fill it with private passengers and fly it around the orbit in the hands of a private astronaut.

The expedition is poised to be the first of its kind, and the seriousness of the responsibility is not lost on its commander, Michael López-Alegría, a retired NASA astronaut who has been converted as VP of business development for Axiom Space not, practicing the historical bankroll flight.

“I really want this crew – which sets the standard for commercial spaceflight forever, if you really think about it – to be as good as we can be,” López-Alegría said in an extensive interview with Insider recently.

Called Ax-1, the mission could be launched from October in a Crew Dragon spacecraft on top of a Falcon 9 rocket, both built by SpaceX, the aviation company founded by Elon Musk.

Read more: SpaceX wants to raise another round of funding and wants to double its valuation to $ 92 billion

López-Alegría will serve as mission commander and will be joined by businessman and former Israeli fighter pilot Eytan Stibbe. Although not officially announced, all evidence so far indicates that the other two passengers were actor Tom Cruise and film director Doug Liman. The crew will drive to the International Space Station, stay about a week (where Cruise and Liman plan to take a movie) and return to Earth.

“I have never met one of them in person, just because of the COVID circumstances,” López-Alegría said. ‘But I feel like I got to know them pretty well and ironically, even though they’s private astronauts, these three specific individuals feel like people who may have been selected as astronauts before – which means I feel like they’re all right. ‘

But López-Alegría has made it clear that he does not intend to work with them easily.

‘I have to play a good cop and a bad cop with them’

Joel Kowsky / NASA

In 2001, millionaire entrepreneur and engineer Dennis Tito became the first orbiting tourist to pay his own way and fly aboard the Russian Soyuz spacecraft to the ISS. The setbacks and objections by NASA leadership and astronauts were numerous and powerful.

“The argument NASA used was that I was not qualified,” Tito told Forbes in 2017. But he noted that Russia had been training cosmonauts for four decades. “It was an insult to suggest that they move in someone who was not trained,” he said. “For me, writing the check was a small part of it. I trained in a Soviet-style military base in the cosmonaut center outside Moscow for eight months. I lived in a two-room apartment, made my own bed and food cooked meals. “

Tito opened the door for many others like him and eventually helped change his mind within NASA – including that of López-Alegría.

“I was not very happy that I would be flying with a private astronaut in 2006, and I actually flew home with another private astronaut. I was not too excited about it,” he said. “But my experience with the first one – Anousheh Ansari – really changed my view. That’s actually why I came into the commercial space because of the experience.”

After some time at Axiom, which wants to hire a few private missions a year to the ISS, López-Alegría raises his hand to command the former. With four spacecraft mastered, and previous experience with private passengers, he emerged as the natural choice when the question arose with Axiom’s leadership.

“My job as commander is to try to identify everyone’s strengths and weaknesses, including my own, and to build the strongest team possible by using those who know knowledge intelligently. I have a great deal of confidence that this crew will not only succeed, but will also exceed NASA’s expectations, “he said of Ax-1.

Yossi Zeliger (CC BY-SA 3.0)

López-Alegría says Axiom will start training the crew about four months before launch, although it is likely to stretch due to frequent slips in the launch of the rocket launch. He intends to make good use of that time.

“It’s an interesting needle I need to thread. On the one hand, I believe that human spaceflight is possible for the vast majority of the population. You do not have to be Superman, you do not have to be Einstein, you do not have to be Da Vinci “You just have to be open-minded and willing to learn,” said López-Alegría.

On the other hand, López-Alegría added, they need to be professional, prepared and punctual – and he is willing to switch between drilling sergeant and mother to encourage them in whatever way is necessary.

“I have to play a good cop as well as a bad cop with them,” he said. “I think the biggest message is that we are a family as a crew. We really need to work together as a team, we need to learn how to communicate, and we need to assist each other. I think we are already on the road to success . ‘

The serious start of a commercial era in human spaceflight

Axiomspace

López-Alegría says he will be extra vigilant with his crew, not only because of the interests of his company, but also for the entire commercial spaceflight.

Despite NASA’s historic objections to the flying space tourists, the agency recently warmed up to the idea. In 2019, he announced that private citizens could stay on US modules at US $ 35,000 per night. A year later, NASA began funding efforts to build private replacements for the ISS, which will be missing around 2030.

Axiom, in turn, wants to build a multimodule facility in a lane called Axiom Station, or AxStation, before the ISS is destroyed.

“People at NASA began to realize that the ISS was a finite resource, and that, in order to have a successor, we had to start sowing the seeds of an economy in a low-Earth orbit. the more they start opening up to commercial ideas, ‘he said.

Although López-Alegría is aware of how hard he and his crew work, it can be a blow to change their minds within NASA, its astronaut corps and other space agencies around the world.

“It’s important to me that we respect our crew. But I realize it’s an uphill climb at first; we’re starting with a shortage. That’s part of the reason I do not want to give anyone excuses for not liking us. he said. “If they do not like us, it is not because we are not performing, or we are not ready, or that we are not capable, or that we are not good drivers in the vehicle – it is for some reason what I think can be overcome with socialization, and explanation, and just be good ambassadors. ‘