WASHINGTON — As Axiom Space gears up for its third private astronaut mission to the International Space Station, the corporate says it has refined the training needed to effectively perform those missions.
Axiom Space is preparing for its Ax-3 mission, scheduled to launch as soon as January on a SpaceX Crew Dragon spacecraft to the ISS. The mission can be commanded by former NASA astronaut Michael López-Alegría with three customers on board: Walter Villadei of Italy, Alper Gezeravcı of Turkey and Marcus Wandt of Sweden.
During a briefing in regards to the mission Oct. 16, López-Alegría and his crewmates said the training for the projected two-week mission goes well, incorporating lessons from the corporate’s first two missions, including Ax-1 that López-Alegría commanded in 2021.
“It has modified in a reasonably significant way,” he said of the training for Ax-3. “We now have learned, from the 2 missions which have preceded this one, how one can really optimize the training.” He noted that the training for Ax-1 included activities that “probably weren’t relevant” for the mission and didn’t emphasize “ops products,” or the flexibility of the crew to administer their time while on the station.
He said that his schedule of experiments could be reduced in comparison with Ax-1 to offer him more time to help his crewmates and reduce their reliance on the skilled astronauts on the station. The corporate followed an analogous approach on the Ax-2 mission in May, commanded by former NASA astronaut Peggy Whitson, and that worked well, he said.
He said SpaceX training for Crew Dragon has change into more efficient as well. “I feel like we’re asymptotically getting towards that perfect answer, and I’d say we’re very near it by the point we did the training on Ax-3.”
One other factor that has helped within the training is that every one 4 members of the crew have backgrounds as military pilots, with Gezeravcı and Villadei energetic members of their countries’ respective air forces. “That is an amazingly prepared crew. For a non-public astronaut mission, it’s exceptional,” said López-Alegría. “The extent of coaching and experiences that these folks bring to our crew is actually remarkable.”
The continuing training, which began nearly six months ago, has been supported by their earlier experience in military aircraft, said Gezeravcı. “That was a extremely big profit for all of us.”
Villadei, who can be pilot of Ax-3, has additional relevant experience: he flew to space in June on Virgin Galactic’s first industrial SpaceShipTwo mission, Galactic 01, accompanied by two other Italian researches to conduct a collection of experiments on that suborbital flight.
“The Virgin Galactic flight was an incredible experience,” he said. “From a training standpoint, it was very useful to me as a type of initial test flight,” helping test skills and approaches that may very well be used on a later flight.
Nonetheless, he stopped wanting recommending a suborbital flight as a requirement for an ISS mission. “It’s not strictly essential,” he said. “It’s an added value to place together this mixture of various flights.”
Wandt is flying through an agreement involving Sweden’s space agency and the European Space Agency. He was chosen as a “reserve” astronaut by ESA lower than a 12 months ago, in a position to be called up if a flight opportunity becomes available, and has yet to finish the complete ESA astronaut training program.
“It’s been going really fast. I feel very confident, though, and the training has been good,” he said. “On the subject of my training, it’s a bit bit backwards: I’m doing the mission training first after which we’re constructing on extra things that I didn’t have from the European Space Agency to start with.”