The crew members of the Axiom Ax-1 private space mission told about their impressions on the ISS. They admitted that they were even busier than the NASA crew on board the International Space Station.
“Our schedule was very tight, even aggressive, especially at first. The pace was just frenzied,” said Lopez-Alegria, commander of the Axiom Ax-1 mission.
The tourist crew, which included Larry Connor, Mark Pathy, Michael Lopez-Alegria and Eitan Stibbe, was originally supposed to stay on the ISS for eight days. But the mission was extended to 15 due to weather conditions on Earth. According to Axiom customers, the extra time was helpful, but the team still felt in a hurry.
Although space tourists paid more than USD 50 million each for the flight, for them, it was not a vacation, but rather hard work. Some of the team’s experiments included testing robot self-assembly technology, working with stem cells, and creating holograms using Microsoft HoloLens. Michael Suffredini, president and CEO of Axiom Space, said that perhaps changes in the schedule could make missions less busy to give the crew more time to rest, for example, to observe the Earth from the ISS porthole. The next mission will probably last up to 60 days.
“The extra time was a blessing. I think we were so focused on research and outreach in the first 8 or 10 days on orbit that we needed the extra time to complete the experience by having time to look out the window, to make contact with friends and family, to just enjoy the sensation,” Lopez-Alegria said.
According to Space News
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