Also the Air Force on board the Axiom 3 mission to the International Space Station
The Defense and Air Force will be on board Axiom Space's Ax-3 mission, whose launch to the International Space Station is scheduled no earlier than January 2024. Among the crew members there will also be Colonel Walter Villadei
Defense and Air Force will be aboard Axiom Space's Ax-3 mission to the International Space Station.
On September 12, NASA and the US aerospace company announced the crew for the launch of the Ax-3 mission. The mission will be commanded by Michael López-Alegría, a former NASA astronaut who also led the Ax-1 mission to the ISS in April 2022. The pilot of the mission will instead be Colonel Walter Villadei of the Italian Air Force. Villadei is a veteran of the recent Virtute 1, the first Italian suborbital mission with a crew of the Air Force and the Cnr, which left from Virgin Galactic's America spaceport last June 29 in the first commercial suborbital flight of Richard Branson's company.
The launch of Ax-3 is scheduled no earlier than January 2024 and will carry Colonel Walter Villadei to the International Space Station together with an entirely European crew.
“The presence of an Italian officer on board the mission is a fundamental step in the development of the Italian space strategy, in which Defense shares and supports the effort of the Government, institutions and companies of the country. This guarantees Italy's projection towards an increasingly active presence in the field of defense and national security, while at the same time seizing the opportunities offered by the New Space Economy", commented the Minister of Defense, Guido Crosetto.
All the details.
THE COLONEL OF THE ITALIAN AIR FORCE AMONG THE MEMBERS OF THE AXIOM SPACE CREW
In addition to Colonel Villadei of the Air Force, the crew includes the Swede Marcus Wandt from the ESA astronaut corps, the Axiom Space astronaut Michael López-Alegría who will be in command of the mission, and the mission specialist Alper Gezeravci, from Turkey.
In January 2022, Axiom Space announced that it welcomed Air Force Colonel Walter Villadei to its headquarters in Houston, Texas (USA) to begin training as a professional astronaut at NASA's Johnson Space Center (JSC). On November 1, 2021, the company signed an agreement with AM with the aim of preparing the Italian cosmonaut to participate in upcoming Axiom missions. In fact, Axiom Space manages the training of future commercial astronauts who will reach the ISS with the Ax missions.
The Ax-3 mission is also the first to have an ESA astronaut among its members. Together, the four crew members will work for 14 days on the ISS. “ESA is encouraging a new generation of space explorers using commercial access to space with new ideas, concepts and research,” said ESA Director of Human and Robotics Exploration, Daniel Neuenschwander.
THE AX-3 MISSION
As with the first two Axiom missions, Ax-3 will launch from Kennedy Space Center, Cape Canaveral, Florida on a SpaceX Crew Dragon spacecraft. Axiom is also planning a fourth mission, Ax-4, later in 2024.
THE PRESENCE OF THE AIR FORCE ON BOARD
Finally, as a note from the AM and Defense explains, "This activity represents a privileged opportunity for Italy to continue to promote its commitment towards safe and effective access to space, which constitutes a natural expansion of the areas of competence of the Air Force". The mission, according to the Defense, "will allow us to specialize and further enhance national skills in the Space domain, also thanks to collaboration with the academic, industrial and entrepreneurial world".
"On behalf of the entire Armed Force, I express satisfaction with the announcement of Axiom Space, which confirms our ability to train and support human activities in Space, a natural extension of the air domain" added the Chief of Staff of the Air Force Gen. SA Luca Goretti.
This is a machine translation from Italian language of a post published on Start Magazine at the URL https://www.startmag.it/innovazione/anche-laeronautica-militare-a-bordo-della-missione-axiom-3-verso-la-stazione-spaziale-internazionale/ on Thu, 14 Sep 2023 05:42:06 +0000.