Private Space Missions Multiplying Like Rabbits
by Douglas Messier
Managing Editor
With the spate of announcements about private space missions over the past year, it’s easy to lose track of the who, what, where, when, why and how of the flights.
As a public service, Parabolic Arc has collected information about all five of the announced missions.
Fourth Quarter 2021
Mission Name: Inspiration4
Mission Type: Orbital free flyer
Launch Vehicle: SpaceX Falcon 9
Spacecraft: SpaceX Crew Dragon
Crew: Jared Isaacman (commander), 3 spaceflight participants
Duration: 2-4 days
Isaacman, who is the founder and CEO of Shift4 Payments, is a an accomplished pilot who has flown civilian and military aircraft. He is donating the three other mission seats to people “who will be selected to represent the mission pillars of leadership, hope, generosity and prosperity.”
Isaacman has given St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital to fill with:
- a St. Jude ambassador with direct ties to the mission who exemplifies the values of the hospital, and
- a raffle winner selected from members of the public who financially support St. Jude’s during the month of February.
The final crew member will be awarded to “a deserving entrepreneur who utilizes the new Shift4Shop eCommerce platform.”
Isaacman has committed to give $100 million to St. Jude and is hoping to raise as much as $200 million for the hospital.
More Information:
www.Inspiration4.com (Official site)
First Quarter 2022
Mission Name: Axiom Ax-1
Mission Type: International Space Station visit
Launch Vehicle: Falcon 9
Spacecraft: SpaceX Crew Dragon
Partners: Axiom Space, SpaceX
Crew: Michael López-Alegría (commander), Larry Connor (pilot), Mark Pathy (mission specialist), Eytan Stibbe (mission specialist)
Duration: TBD
López-Alegría flew to space four times during a record-setting 20-year career with NASA. He will be the first person to command both civil and commercial orbital spaceflight missions.
American entrepreneur Conner will serve as the mission’s pilot. Investor and philanthropist Pathy will become the 11th Canadian in space.
Stibbe, a former Israeli Air Force pilot, was a close friend of the late Israeli astronaut Ilan Ramon, who was lost in the destruction of the space shuttle Columbia. He will be flying on behalf of The Ramon Foundation.
The crew plans to conduct a series of scientific experiments and educational projects during the mission.
More Information:
https://parabolicarc.com/2021/01/26/axiom-names-crew-for-first-private-mission-to-iss/
2022
Mission Name: TBD
Mission Type: Orbital Free Flyer
Launch Vehicle: SpaceX Falcon 9
Spacecraft: SpaceX Crew Dragon
Partners: Space Adventures, SpaceX
Crew: Up to four spaceflight participants
Duration: TBD
Details about this mission remain sparse. The mission will attempt to break the orbital altitude record for private citizen spaceflight.
Date TBD
Mission Name: TBD
Mission Type: International Space Station visit
Launch Vehicle: Soyuz-2
Spacecraft: Soyuz MA
Partners: RSC Energia, Space Adventures
Crew: Russian cosmonaut and two spaceflight participants
Duration: TBD
The flight will feature a short duration visit to the Russian segment of the space station. One of the spaceflight participants will have the opportunity to conduct a spacewalk outside of the station.
Mission Name: Dear Moon
Mission Type: Circumlunar
Spacecraft: Starship
Company: SpaceX
Crew: Yusaku Maezawa, six to eight artists
Duration: ~6 days
The billionaire founder of the clothing company Zozo plans invite six to eight artists on the trip who would create works of art after returning home. The passengers could include painters, sculptors, film directors, architects, writers and fashion designers.
More Information:
32 responses to “Private Space Missions Multiplying Like Rabbits”
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It wasn’t that many years ago that people were saying that the market for orbital tourism didn’t exist. Back then, Russia was the only entity on earth actually selling seats to LEO. And with that monopoly position, Russia could charge pretty much whatever it wanted, even to NASA. I believe that the last Soyuz seats for NASA cost the US $90 million each.
curious. what do you think that the market is? how deep?
Axiom
yeap see my note above
Good question, but I’d say it’s probably bigger than the NASA/ESA/Japan/Canada government space agency market (currently 2 flights a year to the ISS, plus as much as 1 more flight per year to the Moon once Artemis kicks in).
Judging from the above though, maybe the private market is of similar size to the government customer market.
Once Starship gets going and drops the costs considerably (not right away), I expect traffic will pick up for both private and government flights
expressing a little ignorance here:)
are they using refurbish crew dragon for the non NASA missions?
anyway if they are a guess would be that the effort would be profitable for SpaceX with 1 or 2 flights of “non ISS but people on board” payloads…and it certainly is there for bragging rights…
they might be able to sustain that
IIRC both the Inspiration4 mission and the Axiom AX-1 mission will be using the Resilience Crew Dragon capsule after refurbishment.
The Dragon 2 capsules is design for up to 5 flights each AFAIK. Currently there is 2 Crew Dragon in service plus 3 more under construction. So there is 23 more flight opportunities remaining, unless more Crew Dragons is build.
Correct, both Inspiration4 and AX-1 use Crew Dragon C207 “Resilience”
I don’t think the Space Adventures mission has a vehicle assigned yet, but it sounds like they’ll be trying to beat Gemini 11’s 1,368 km LEO altitude record.
https://spaceadventures.com…
thank you…so for the basic price of the Dragon, which NASA is paying for, the company can then reuse it 4 (four) times for its private world?
OK one more question…if a capsule is reused by a private crew is there anything that stops it from docking at ISS? anything in writing?
thanks so much
Axiom-1 will be a reused vehicle on a private mission to ISS. A precursor to commercial ISS missions after Axiom’s initial ISS module is attached.
SpaceX says Crew Dragon can be used 5 times, but that may be an opening bid to NASA based on limited flight experience. If past history is any example about reuses, that number could change.
I realize that this is calling for more speculation but I am curious if it is in line with mine
curious what the Bottom end price would be?
in my view it could be “quite low”…a reused booster with a spacecraft where the only “manufactoring cost” would be the cost to reuse…
and then the cost to 1) put it all together and 2) operate it including training?
so I am guessing…what? for four seats 8 to 12 million a seat?
The would be a good estimate on the costs. But price is what the market will pay for it. The larger the difference the greater the profit and the greater the incentive to provide those services. It looks like those points are now crossing for a larger market of those interested in orbital flights.
of course, if you can get more for a product then the bare min for profit and viability…why not
but and this could be a big deal (or it could be more of Musk hype, but lets hope not) if as you put it the points are now crossing, it could be essential for the business case of Axiom and others who are going to depend in large measure on a continual stream of both joy riders and eventually people who represent companies who want to “do something” in space at the station, that is more of aa proprietary nature then doing something open would allow
I dont know that any of this is reality and am skeptical
BUT BUT if Musk has really gotten (and this appears to be reality) the reuse of the booster down to 30 or so days that SEEMS to mean that they have gotten comfortable with and understand the refurbis/inspection requirements (and as you say those points are crossing)…and that means that the cost of launch hardware is now floored at the cost of a second stage, the re something of the first, and cost to launch ….
then the next step is to find that curve with the capsule…and that could end up being a rather “less” baseline cost that can then be “inflated” as demand rises or falls
and if all this is happening (again skeptical) that would be a first in human spaceflight.
Don’t forget the Russians, I would imagine they will still build the five capsules per year so they will have extra once Boeing is flying also. I believe they will start offering flights also?
The Russkies have been offering flights for awhile. There is as yet no indication they have any takers, however.
I do not believe they have offered a LEO only, they have been selling the ISS extra seat missions. But once Boeing comes online they will have a reduced passenger manifest for the ISS from the other members, is my understanding.
That’s my understanding too, especially if the Russkies continue to eschew seat swapping with CC vehicles. Right now, they seem to want to carry as many tourists as possible which would be two at a time, though there seem to be some ergonomic and pilotage problems with doing that.
Depends on the price. Right now, only the ultra rich can afford a trip to LEO because the price is still in the tens of millions of dollars per seat. But as launch prices keep dropping, the price will go down so that more people can afford the trip. In terms of energy, it’s not that expensive. So cost savings will depend on rapid reuse of launch hardware.
see my above, I am wondering if for four seats the TOTAL cost could be around 50 or so million now you would have to add some money for a space station stay…but as P.K. Sink notes that might be where Axiom comes into play
When their price was 20 million the Russians said they had a list of 300 that would pay that amount. I imagine the list shorted a bit as they started jacking up prices.
well we will see soon….but 300 at 20 million would be a massive market
Now if only Bigelow Aerospace could somehow resurrect itself, just as the need for their products seems to be at hand…
Or possibly a new entrant with go get it that learned the lessons of Bigelow.
That entrant is Sierra Nevada Corp’s LIFE* inflatable habitat.
* Large Inflatable Fabric Environment
https://uploads.disquscdn.c…
You are right on the physical product and possibly on the go get it. What I had in mind was the mindset, as in, 20 years ago I hadn’t even heard of Elon, and now he is the superstar of launch, And no, I’m not advocating that he get into habitats. I was thinking in terms of someone we’ve barely heard of coming in with fire in the belly.
One could make the argument that long term orbital missions in Starships; returning periodically for refitting, upgrades, and supporting logistics flights, could be considered “stations .”
That would be a valid argument. The way I see it, the stations that move the ball down the field might be different than most of us expect.
I certainly did not see reusability being developed by gradually changing an expendable as happened with the F9. I don’t remember anyone else predicting the exact way it happened either.
I can imagine several concepts that might develop over the next couple of decades, which likely means that it will be a different one yet. The accordion station that extends out and spins after launch? Form follows function and the functions are still evolving.
they are an amazing company
Yup, both SNC and SpaceX are amazing. When Commercial Crew 2 and Commercial Cargo 3 contracts are competed mid-decade Boeing may have its hands full with Dream Chaser, whatever SpaceX comes up with (Crew Dragon upgrades, Starship, Cargo Dragon XL, ??), or some new player.
We live in interesting times ?
The cone shaped LIFE hub looks to be a re-tasked Shooting Star, Dream Chaser’s logistics module. SNC has a real with the Defense Innovation Unit for uncrewed orbital platforms based on Shooting Star, with an option to later human rate them. ISTM to be optionally crewed LIFE would need to be part of the platform.
https://spacenews.com/three…
agreed
Here’s your chance, Doug Messier, to get some skin in the game. Buy yourself a raffle ticket, and you have a shot at being a passenger aboard an orbiting Dragon for a few days.
Inspiration4 Super Bowl ad
https://youtu.be/b0S3ag7BVyA