Axiom Space’s Private Flight to Space Station Delayed to End of March
Axiom Space’s plan to send four private astronauts to the International Space Station has been delayed from Feb. 21 to March 31, NASA announced last week.
“Axiom Mission 1, the first private astronaut mission to the International Space Station, is now targeting to launch March 31 to account for additional spacecraft preparations and space station traffic,” NASA said in a blog post. “Once aboard the orbiting laboratory, the four-person Axiom Space crew will conduct science, outreach, and commercial activities for eight days before their return to Earth.”
Former NASA astronaut Michael Lopez-Alegria, who is an Axiom vice president, will command the SpaceX Crew Dragon mission known as Ax-1. The spacecraft will be launched aboard a Falcon 9 rocket from NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida.
Lopez-Alegria will be joined by: American Larry Connor, who will serve as pilot; Israeli mission specialist Eytan Stibbe; and Canadian mission specialist Mark Pathy. Stibbe will be the second Israeli to fly to space.
29 responses to “Axiom Space’s Private Flight to Space Station Delayed to End of March”
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a great joy ride
they can be there when the Russians invade the Ukraine
So? No Russians are on the list to fly on the Dragon?
and the entire deal of the space station falls apart 🙂
I would imagine that NASA has been quietly plotting with SpaceX, Northrup Grumman, Sierra Space and JAXA for a post-Russian ISS game plan. I’d love to be a fly on the wall…
you can tell they are working on it. I think its this OSC machine (NG) that is going to do a second space station reboost test. I was told by a friend that they have looked at the ICM still in storage. and they have also been talking with OSC (NG) about a modified Cygnus that could do the attitude control. I think that is the only real show stopper…the question is if the Russians leave…where to they leave from
Ivan wont leave. they get to much money from us still. But in my view Biden has to kick them off if he has any hope of salvaging US leadership its not his fault, he has a bad hand. but if we dont play what we have well this will be the time for the book “While America Slept”
Really? All that Russia is looking for is a buffer from western invasion. Given that they have been invaded from Europe in 1914, 1920 and 1941 you could hardly blame them.
A deal could easily be made if folks looked at it from geopolitical history but instead the west will end up with another Korean style war.
well I dont agree. that is not what Putin is doing. that is old school thinking that puts things how they were 40 to 80 years ago. What would you suggest? sort of give up half the Ukraine
What Putin is trying to do is to destroy the western alliance. and in the process of that Biden’s presidency. he isnt worried about a western invasion. he knows that is not going to happen.
Yes, it’s not as the NATO nations, other than Poland, have no desire to fight and Russia knows it.
So make the Ukraine and Belarus buffer states. No foreign troops in either but both Russia and NATO guarantee their independence and non-interference in their affairs.
The alternative will be a divided Ukraine with a new Berlin Wall through Kiev…
there will be Russian troops in both Ukraine because the Russians want them there and Belarus because both countries want them there.
it has to be made proactively known to Putin what the cost are to invade the Ukraine and make them steep. so painful they hurt him they will hurt us…but they hurt him. the concept you are mentioning is not what is at issue
Too late for that already. There are Russian troops digging in for a long stay in Belarus – ostensibly at the invitation of its government. And, of course, there are already plenty of Russians in Ukraine in two places – definitely not there at the request of its government. Your suggestion would require Russia to shift into reverse. Russian tanks have no reverse gear.
He’s doing both, actually – looking to mess with NATO and playing the poor-Russia-beset-by-hostile-neighbors card.
Russia is always looking for a “buffer” to its west. Then, when it has one, it looks for a buffer for its buffer – lather, rinse, repeat. Russia delenda est or this crap is never going to stop.
Other than a bit around the edges, I don’t see any indication NASA is taking the prospect of Russian decampment from ISS very seriously.
Biden’s bad hand is largely of his own making – it was pretty good when he moved in. Having played a good hand badly, there’s not much hope he’ll now suddenly start to play the hand he’s already messed up any better.
I’d like to think so too. But if NASA was that on-the-ball about ISS contingency planning, we wouldn’t have been dependent on Soyuz for nine years to get there. I fear your “fly” would be more surprised by what it didn’t hear than by what it did.
Unlikely, Russia needs it more that the U.S.
I actually think that the Russians are looking for a way out
But we won’t give him one by pushing for putting troops on his border. It will make him look weak, and the Russian people have no tolerance for weak leaders.
sorry not precise. I think the Russians are looking for a way off the space station.
Sorry I dont believe in helping people or leaders find a way out of crisis they have created. Putin created this for no real reason other then his power play …a way to tweak the US while we are weak after 20 years of bad management by both political parties (or 40 take your pick) . there is no need for a buffer or anything he knows we are not going to invade Russia. he is trying to push the US over the edge as a super power. and we cannot tolerate that
Plus I wont condemn people to live in a horrible system to spare us the agony of making hard choices. I am not all up for joining them in the fight, but if they will fight then I will support giving them all the weapons they want.
If I was Biden along with massive sanctions I would tell Putin, you want a war…we will help the other side fight it 🙂
If you want to see the folks in the Ukraine enjoy freedom than making it a independent buffer state will allow them to do so. As it is those in the eastern Ukraine will be under Russian rule, the same as East Germany was.
Sanctions won’t hurt Russia as the Chinese are supporting them since Russia has the oil and gas they need and they will buy it regardless of sanctions.
Given Germany’s behavior, refusing even third parties to transfer weapons made in Germany to the Ukraine, prohibiting British aircraft from overflying Germany to the Ukraine and just sending a token field hospital, shows they will not support war with Russia, meaning our bases there would be useless and trying to use them will fracture NATO.
Given that Merkel is now gone, I’m not so sure how much of a PITA Germany is still prepared to be if the U.S. wanted to backstop Ukraine in an active fight. But it is also far from clear there will be such a fight. And, not that Biden will do so, but we should be moving our NATO infrastructure out of Germany and into Poland and the Baltics anyway.
I don’t think so. I think the current status quo suits Russia fine and that they’re willing to continue it indefinitely. What they already have of Ukraine gives them most of what they’d get by taking the whole thing – and victory in such an attempt is by no means a cinch bet – with none of the unpleasant side-effects that would surely ensue, especially if they lost.
going to a fight in the Ukraine has nothing to do with Russian needs, it has everything to do with taking on a superpower
Certainly possible – whether or not Russia makes a land-grab in Ukraine.
yes
Not on AX-1.
If the Russians invade Ukraine.
yes
What the Russians most want in Ukraine is for it not to join NATO. So far, they’ve gotten that just by grabbing off Crimea and a bit of the Ukrainian far east. Continuing to bluster and threaten is cheap. An actual war would be expensive and Russia is not exactly rolling in dough these days. Never say never, but I think Russia will continue to settle for being a growly bear.