Axiom Space’s 3rd space station mission to serve European astronauts

Axiom Space on Tuesday announced its third private mission to the International Space Station will send up three astronauts from three European nations while still commanded by a former NASA astronaut.

The Axiom Mission 3 (Ax-3) flight, once again using a SpaceX Crew Dragon launching from Kennedy Space Center, is slated for no earlier than January 2024. It will be flying up one astronaut each from Italy, Turkey and Sweden while the mission is led by Axiom’s chief astronaut Michael López-Alegría who will be making his sixth trip to space.

The customers are Italian Air Force Col. Walter Villadei, who will act as pilot. In the two mission specialist roles are Alper Gezeravcı of Turkey and ESA project astronaut Marcus Wandt of Sweden. All three have served in their respective nations’ air forces.

Gezeravcı will become Turkey’s first astronaut. The flight is also the first time Axiom has partnered with the ESA. The use of commercial visits augment the seats it already earns as a primary partner with the U.S., Canada, Russia and Japan for the orbiting station.

“This crew is shifting the paradigm of how governments and space agencies access and reap the benefits of microgravity,” said López-Alegría in a press release. “The Ax-3 mission will be transformational as it fosters partnerships outside the construct of the ISS and positions European nations as pioneers of the emerging commercial space industry.”

López-Alegría, who has dual U.S. and Spanish citizenship, flew on the Ax-1 mission in 2022. Before retirement from NASA, López-Alegría flew on three space shuttle missions as well as a Soyuz flight during which he spent 215 days aboard the ISS.

As an Axiom Space employee, he spent another 15-plus days on board during Ax-1, which was the first all-commercial crew to the ISS. Ax-2 visited the ISS for eight days in May this year. The Ax-3 mission is planned for about a 14-day stay.

NASA requires each commercial visit to the ISS to be led by a former NASA astronaut. Axiom Space to date has won all four commercial visit opportunities, with the Ax-4 mission set for as early as August 2024. While the price tag for its customers were not announced for Ax-2 or for this upcoming Ax-3 flight, the company’s first three customers on Ax-1 each paid $55 million for the visit.

Axiom Space in turn pays SpaceX for the use of the Crew Dragon spacecraft and launches atop its Falcon 9 rockets from KSC’s Launch Pad 39-A. It also pays NASA for its time on the station.

In time, though, the company wants to build out its own section on the ISS including its own parking spaces. It’s working on the first of three planned modules that could fly up and attach as early as 2026. When NASA, Russia and its partners decide to deorbit the ISS, the Axiom modules will remain in orbit and become Axiom Station, one of several commercial space stations in the works that could be in orbit before the end of the decade.

For now, though, its private visits remain the company’s moneymaker.

Starting with Ax-2, Axiom Space shifted its primary customer focus to serving nations trying to gain access to orbit, when it flew up two astronauts for Saudi Arabia. It has agreements with the United Arab Emirates and Hungary as well.

The company then trains the candidates in partnership with SpaceX and helps build the countries’ spaceflight and astronaut selection programs.

“We’re a U.S. company for sure, but we’re a global provider of services. So we’re being agnostic,” said Axiom Space President and CEO Michael Suffredini earlier this year.