Saudi Arabia has entered into a deal with Axiom Space, a company that organizes and manages private flights of American spacecraft. Under the terms of the agreement, the SpaceX spacecraft is to deliver two Saudi astronauts to the International Space Station as early as next year.
The contract was signed in early 2022, making Saudi Arabia the latest Gulf country to strengthen ties with private US space companies. For each seat on the Space X Crew Dragon spacecraft, the country paid $55 million.
Under the terms of the deal, astronauts will be sent to the ISS at the beginning of 2023, where they will stay for a week. Saudi Arabian space explorers will join two Americans, former NASA astronaut Peggy Whitson and racing investor John Schoffner.
The mission, called Ax-2, will be the second spaceflight organized by Axiom. The company did the first in April, sending a crew of four aboard the SpaceX Crew Dragon capsule, including a Canadian investor and an Israeli businessman, to the space station.
The presence of private astronauts aboard the Ax-2 has yet to be approved by a panel chaired by NASA, which includes stakeholders and countries involved in the operation of the space station, such as Canada, Japan, Russia and the European Space Agency. However, a source close to the group said the mission is likely to be approved.
Private US companies are increasingly getting involved in sending astronauts to the ISS, while NASA is focusing its efforts on the Artemis lunar mission .
For Axiom and other space companies, making deals with foreign governments is vital to maintaining the business of sending people into space. This is a luxury that very wealthy adventurers and countries for which it is important in terms of national prestige can afford – like Saudi Arabia. Another important deal Axiom concluded with Turkey – at the end of 2023, the first astronauts from this country will be launched into space, and the mission will probably be called Ax-3.
However, Axiom also has more global goals – such as deploying its own private space station by the middle of this decade. Its modules will initially be attached to the ISS, and then removed to a separate structure.
Recall that in anticipation of the decommissioning of the ISS in 2031, NASA signed contracts with four companies that will create private space stations. The list includes Axiom Space, Blue Origin and Northrop Grumman. Voyager received the largest contract worth $160 million.
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Source: Reuters
