Three rich businessmen on Monday returned from the International Space Station (ISS) with their astronaut escort, wrapping up a pricey trip that marked NASA’s debut as a bed-and-breakfast host.
Flying back in a SpaceX capsule, they splashed down in the Atlantic off the Florida coast to close out a 17-day tour that cost them US$55 million apiece.
The trip was supposed to last a little over a week, but dicey weather kept the visitors in orbit almost twice as long as intended.
Photo: SpaceX via AP
“Welcome back to planet Earth,” radioed SpaceX Mission Control from Southern California. “We hope you enjoyed the extra few days in space.”
“Amazing mission,” real-estate tycoon Larry Connor said.
Before departing the space station on Sunday night, the group thanked their seven hosts, including three NASA astronauts whose own mission is nearing an end.
It was the first time NASA opened its space hatches to tourists after shunning the practice perfected over the decades by Russia.
In the fall last year, a Russian film crew flew up, followed by a Japanese fashion mogul and his assistant. In each case, a cosmonaut traveled with them.
The latest guests were accompanied by a former NASA astronaut now working for Axiom Space, the Houston company in charge of the flight, making it the first fully private trip to the space station.
After hosting longer than expected, NASA was itching to make room for the next crew. SpaceX will attempt to launch three NASA astronauts and one Italian to the space station as soon as today. They are to replace the three Americans and a German up there since November last year.
SpaceX’s Benji Reed said the company launched its first passengers — a pair of NASA test pilots — two years ago and just completed its first private flight to the space station using the same capsule.
Axiom handled the logistics for the trip for its three paying customers: Connor from Dayton, Ohio; Canadian private equity chief executive Mark Pathy; and Israeli investor Eytan Stibbe of Tel Aviv.
Their chaperone was Michael Lopez-Alegria, an Axiom vice president who flew to space four times while a NASA astronaut.
It was an “amazing adventure that we’ve had, even longer and more exciting than we thought,” Lopez-Alegria said after departing the space station.
Axiom teamed up with SpaceX for the journey that began with an April 8 liftoff from NASA’s Kennedy Space Center
While in space, the visitors did experiments and peered back at Earth.
“It’s been eye-opening in so many ways that I think will have such a lasting impact on my life,” Pathy said.
The experience was especially personal for Stibbe. He served as a pilot under Ilan Ramon, Israel’s first astronaut who died aboard space shuttle Columbia in 2003.
Stibbe flew copies of the surviving pages of Ramon’s space diary, as well as artwork and music created by Ramon’s children.
“There were a lot of eyes on this mission just to see if it was practical,” Axiom operations director Derek Hassmann said after the splashdown. “Everybody understood it was possible,” but wondered if amateurs could pull this off with abbreviated training, without disturbing the space station crew.
“I think we proved we could do that,” Hassmann said.
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