Axiom Space expands partnership with India for future human spaceflights and space station development

US-based Axiom Space, which recently sent Indian astronaut Shubhanshu Shukla to space as part of its Axiom-4 mission, plans to deepen its partnership with India, in human spaceflights and its space station programme, said its chief executive Tejpaul Bhatia. Speaking to ET’s Kiran Rathee, Bhatia underlined India’s growing importance in the global space ecosystem underscored by several endeavours in the past few years, including missions to the moon and the sun. Axiom is the first private company to develop a commercial space station, slated to start initial operations by 2027. Edited excerpts from an interview:

What was the significance of the Axiom-4 mission?
The mission has a lot of significance for Axiom, for the world, and for India. We are now the only company to have done any commercial astronauts’ missions to the ISS (International Space Station). For India, Poland and Hungary, it's their first astronauts to the ISS. With the second astronaut ever and India as pilot, it is a very big signal to the world of India's space power position. Through the tieups between US, India, Nasa, Isro, and Axiom, we have created a new era of collaboration that has brought together multiple capabilities and opened up space for everyone.

So, it's a kind of outsourcing wherein Isro has given the job to Axiom to send its astronaut to space?
Correct, it would be no different in my opinion like Isro utilising Skyroot (Indian space startup for space launch services) to send cargo or payloads to space.

Do you have more missions planned with Isro or the Indian government?
The intention and the desire are much more than the Axiom-4 mission. I expect to see significant missions coming up in the future, from more human spaceflights to our space station programme, and to the spacesuit that Axiom is building. (Nasa’s astronauts will use an Axiom spacesuit for the Artemis lunar mission). I think India has a very big responsibility now on the world stage to be a leader in the new space economy.

Could we look forward to more human spaceflights in future with Indian astronauts?
Yes.
Axiom is also providing services to any private astronaut who wants to go to space. How does it work? With this opening up of access to space through Axiom, a private individual could also do this. Thcommitment here is no different than a nation or a professional astronaut, which is, eight months to a year of rigorous training. You can't just go to the ISS for fun. You have to know what you're doing, be very well prepared, very well-trained and certified to go up. So, anyone from India, with the means, could also do this.

How much do you charge for sending an astronaut to ISS?
I can't speak specifics of any particular contract but in general, a pilot seat is $70 million, and mission specialist seats are $65 million each. Every deal we do with every nation is different and many times, the relationships are much larger than just that one mission or flight.

You have started work on the next mission. Have you finalised the astronauts?
My team at any given point now is selling three years in advance. The future, thankfully to India, is very bright for all nations to have an opportunity to be up there.

You are already booked for the next three missions. Do those missions have any Indian connection?
I can't speak of the nature of the contract. Our relationship with India is extremely powerful and valuable. These government relationships for Axiom, particularly the one with India, is much larger than any one mission. In those future missions, there are some Indian connections, that's about the most I could possibly say there. But how these manifest over the next several years, I think, will also mirror what happens on the geopolitical stage for space. Many people are speaking of India as the fourth space superpower and they have proven it now over the last several years between the missions to the moon, the launches, the goals for station and mission to the sun but also with an Indian astronaut to the ISS. It's very much the time for India's leadership on the global stage.

When will the Axiom space station be completed or attached to the ISS?
For the attachment, we are targeting 2027 for the first module, to connect, and then about a module every year. The plan is that we disconnect and become an independent station well before ISS plans to deorbit (in 2031).

What will be the station’s capacity?
The plan for the first five modules includes two habitats, so eight people living and working and it is designed to be modular and expandable.