Tschechische Regierung unterzeichnet Vereinbarung mit Axiom für Astronautenmission

Just to add because it’s not clear from the title…there *is* an intention by the Czech government to send Aleš Svoboda to ISS onboard a future Axiom mission and there *are* negotiations going on, but no final deal has been reached yet. The idea is to send him up there within the next 5 years.

The Czech science and industrial communities are still in a process of selecting experiments for him to do during the mission. They apparently don’t want to rush it but also there are actually only so many available Dragon seats before the station is destroyed in 2030 so it’s not like they’ve got plenty of time.

As the article discusses, countries are paying so their people get to fly to space early. As of 2021 [Axiom was selling seats to ISS for $55 million each](https://www.theverge.com/2021/1/26/22250327/space-tourists-axiom-private-crew-iss-price) Marcus Wandt on Ax-3 and Uznański on the forthcoming Ax-4 are examples of reserve ESA astronauts that, by their governments paying Axiom, are [flying within two years of their selection](https://np.reddit.com/r/SpaceXLounge/comments/1elbdyr/axiom_spaces_fourth_private_astronaut_crew_named/lgreuw4/?context=3). I think I read somewhere that doing so has annoyed ESA for bypassing the “official” process for being chosen for a mission, but in the meanwhile Sweden and Poland are sending their people into space many years ahead of the full-time astronauts chosen with them in 2022.

Doing so also gives them seniority. Just as Tim Peake is the logical choice to command the forthcoming all-UK Axiom mission with the three UK members of the 2022 ESA class, Wandt might very well command a future all-ESA flight. Perhaps Svoboda will also get the opportunity.

SpaceX is providing nations with a white-label space program. Once Starship is man-rated, how much would a Persian gulf petrostate pay to be the first nation other than the US (and possibly before China) to have sent people around the moon?