SpaceX launch: Tourism mission docks with the ISS. Here’s everything you need to know

Here’s everything you need to know.

How much did this all cost?

The mission is made possible by very close coordination among Axiom, SpaceX and NASA, since the ISS is government-funded and operated.

Food alone costs $2,000 per day, per person, in space. Getting provisions to and from the space station for a commercial crew is another $88,000 to $164,000 per person, per day. For each mission, bringing on the necessary support from NASA astronauts will cost commercial customers another $5.2 million, and all the mission support and planning that NASA lends is another $4.8 million.

Who is flying?

Is it safe to go to the ISS, given the Russia conflict?

Russia is the United States’ primary partner on the ISS, and the space station has long been hailed as a symbol of post-Cold War cooperation.

Despite all the bluster, NASA has repeatedly sought to reassure that, behind the scenes, NASA and its Russian counterparts are working together seamlessly.

“NASA is aware of recent comments regarding the International Space Station. US sanctions and export control measures continue to allow US-Russia civil space cooperation on the space station,” NASA Administrator Bill Nelson said in a recent statement. “The professional relationship between our international partners, astronauts and cosmonauts continues for the safety and mission of all on board the ISS.”

Are they astronauts or tourists?

This is a question stewing in the spaceflight community right now.

The US government has traditionally awarded astronaut wings to anyone who travels more than 50 miles above the Earth’s surface. But commercial astronaut wings — a relatively new designation handed out by the Federal Aviation Administration — might not be handed out quite so liberally.

Whether it’s fair to still refer to people who pay their way to space as “astronauts” is an open question, and countless observers — including NASA astronauts — have weighed in.

If you ask the AX-1 crew, they don’t love being referred to as “tourists.”

“This mission is very different from what you may have heard of in some of the recent — especially suborbital — missions. We are not space tourists,” Lopez-Alegría told reporters earlier this month, referring to the brief supersonic flights put on by Jeff Bezos’ company Blue Origin. “I think there’s an important role for space tourism, but it is not what Axiom is about.”

The crew did undergo extensive training for this mission, taking on much of the same tasks as professional astronauts-in-training. But the fact is that the three paying customers on this flight — Stibbe, Pathy, and Connor — weren’t selected from a pool of thousands of applicants and aren’t dedicating much of their lives to the endeavor.

Axiom itself has been more flippant about word usage in the past.

What will they do while they’re in space?

Each of the crew members has a list of research projects they plan to work on.

Connor will be doing some research on how spaceflight affects senescent cells, which are cells that have ceased the normal replication process and are “linked to multiple age-related diseases,” according to Axiom. That research will be done in partnership with the Mayo Clinic and Cleveland Clinic.

Among the items on Pathy’s to-do list is some additional medical research, focused more on children’s health, that he’ll conduct in partnership with several Canadian hospitals, and some conservation-awareness initiatives.

Stibbe will also do some research and focus on “educational and artistic activities to connect the younger generation in Israel and around the globe,” according to Axiom. Stibbe is flying on behalf of the Ramon Foundation — a space education non-profit named for Israel’s first astronaut, Ilan Ramon, who died in the Space Shuttle Columbia disaster in 2003.​Stibbe’s Axiom bio says he and Ramon shared a “close” friendship .

During downtime, the crew will also get a chance to enjoy sweeping views of Earth. And, at some point, they’ll share a meal with the other astronauts on board. Their food was prepared in partnership with celebrity chef and philanthropist Jose Andrés. Their meals “lean on flavors and traditional dishes of Commander López-Alegría’s native Spain,” according to Axiom.