First Spanish-born astronaut plans new space trip at age 63
Friday, November 13, 2020 @ 12:47 PM
THE FIRST Spanish-born astronaut is about to go up into space again – at the age of 62.
Miguel Eladio López-Alegría, who carried out three missions to NASA's Space Transport System (STS) and two in the Soyuz between 1995 and 2007, is now heading into the big starry mass in a very different capacity: As a tour guide.
He will be the professional commander on the Space X Crew Dragon, which will fly to the International Space Station (ISS) towards the end of 2021.
The trip, run by Axiom Space, will see three 'space tourists' head out into the Earth's orbit, to the 'floating' headquarters where Spain's current science minister, Pedro Duque, has been based several times.
Miguel López-Alegría retweeted the Axiom Space (@Axiom_Space) announcement, which read: “A multi-national crew composed of three private astronauts and @CommanderMLA have now officially signed with Axiom. In other words: The first private crew to go to orbit in human history – the crew of Ax-1 – has been assembled. Mission launches NET late 2021. More details soon.”
He captioned it: “I'm so grateful for this opportunity; we're going to have a #Blast!”
The three 'tourists', who have been given basic astronaut 'training' but who are not space professionals in any way, will be spending around on an orbital complex, experiencing micro-gravity, and catching views of the Earth unique to the ISS – including sunrises every half an hour, as Pedro Duque explained to school children last January, and even the giant tomato greenhouses in the province of Almería.
Read more at thinkSPAIN.com