NASA has approved Axiom Space’s plans to send a third private mission to the ISS. The flight will take place no earlier than November 2023.
Today, Axiom Space is one of the largest players in the field of private astronautics. In 2020, it received a contract from NASA to build a commercial residential module for the ISS. In the future, the company plans to add other modules to it. After the decision is made to flood the ISS, the private segment will be separated from the complex and will become an independent orbital station.
In the spring of 2022, Axiom also organized the first private mission to the ISS. It lasted 17 days. The second orbital mission of Axiom is planned for the second quarter of 2023. Its participants included Rayyanah Barnawi, who would become the first Saudi Arabian citizen in history to travel in space.
On March 14, NASA announced the approval of plans to send a third private Axiom mission to the ISS. So far, the company has not disclosed its details. It is only known that the duration of the mission will be 14 days, and its commander will be a former NASA astronaut (this is a mandatory requirement of NASA). The flight will take place no earlier than November 2023.
In its statement, NASA also announced that it was considering an application to organize a private expedition to the ISS in 2024. The official announcement will be made after the aerospace administration completes negotiations with an unnamed company.
Recall that Axiom Space recently showed a prototype of a lunar spacesuit for the Artemis program.
According to https://spacenews.com
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