Keith’s note: I was on i24 TV in Israel today to talk about the upcoming Axiom-2 (AX2) mission to the ISS. In a nutshell I think my main point is that what was once monolithic i.e. a large rich country sent its generic employee astronauts into space to do mission X to now where many people go up via many different arrangements to do many different things. And who they are as a person becomes more important – and more interesting – than the fact that they are an “astronaut” in a rocketship. And that is a good thing. Audio. Video clip below.

NASA, Axiom Space to Host Media Briefing on Private Astronaut Mission, NASA “NASA and Axiom Space have signed a mission order for the first private astronaut mission to the International Space Station and will host a teleconference with media at 11 a.m. EDT on Monday, May 10, to discuss more details about the mission.” Keith’s note: Over the past several months NASA HEOMD PAO has repeatedly denied me access to […]

Russian Film Plans Mean NASA Astronaut Could Spend an Entire Year in Space, Gizmodo “Russian director Klim Shipenko and an actress to be named later might join the Soyuz MS-19 mission, which is scheduled for launch in October, as AP reports. .. Once filming activities are done, Shipenko and his partner, along with Novitskiy, would return home on MS-18, likely within a week. The two seats were meant for Vande […]

Letter From House Science Committee Republicans To NASA On Soyuz Flights “NASA’s recent solicitation for “International Space Station Seat Exchange,” indicated that “NASA has no remaining crew seats on Soyuz.” At the January 2018 Committee hearing, the NASA witness testified that “[t]he manufacturing time of a Soyuz of approximately 3 years will not allow additional Soyuz to be manufactured.” Given the information and testimony listed above, it appears that NASA […]