Archdeacon: No ‘space tourist’, Larry Connor set to pilot flight to International Space Station

On board with Connor will be former NASA astronaut Michael Lopez-Alegria, who is an Axiom Vice President and will serve as the commander, Canadian businessman Mark Pathy and Eytan Stibbe, an Israeli entrepreneur and former fighter jet pilot.

They will be the first all-civilian, commercially-funded crew to visit the ISS.

The launch was pushed back from late February and then, because of scheduling issues, was just moved again from Sunday’s planned launch.

Connor said he was ready to go, “not nervous yet” and especially ‘’excited” to be all but finished with his training, which began eight months ago and has taken him to the Johnson Space Center in Houston, Texas, the SpaceX headquarters in California, Cape Kennedy in Florida and even to Germany.

As of Tuesday morning he’d already completed 1,022 hours of training and that leads to a distinction that the Axiom Space company – and Connor especially – have stressed.

“A lot of people don’t realize we are designated by NASA as private astronauts,” Connor said. “And that is a huge difference as compared to a space tourist.

“A space tourist might do 10-15 hours of training and we’ve all done well over 1,000 hours. Plus, we’ve had to pass a lot of rigorous tests – both physical tests and also extensive tests of knowledge – to meet all the professional astronaut standards.”

That underscores the difference between guys like Jeff Bezos and Richard Branson and their quick up and down trips into space and the upcoming mission of Connor and his Ax-1 mates, who’ll be aboard a SpaceX Crew Dragon spacecraft launched by a Falcon 9 rocket.

“While a space tourist might go up for 10 minutes and not do any experiments or research, we’re on a 10-day mission to the Space Station and the four of us are doing 25 different experiments encompassing over 100 hours of research,” Connor said.

The 72-year-old Connor said he is partnering with both the Mayo Clinic and the Cleveland Clinic to do “four different experiments centered around the heart, the spine, the brain and aging.”

He’s also going to participate in five other research projects of his fellow astronauts.

In addition, Connor will be connecting with four Dayton area schools – Dayton Early College Academy (DECA Prep), a stem school and two others – for what he hopes will be a live chat with students from the ISS, which is orbiting 250 miles above the earth’s surface.

While the intent is to inspire future generations, he’s also bringing along some meaningful connections to the past.

“The Wright Brothers Museum asked me to bring along a piece of cloth from the 1903 Kitty Hawk Flyer,” he said. “And the Neil Armstrong Museum has asked me to bring three different items and I’m honored to do all that and take some of our history into space.”

When it was suggested he might now stand on a similarly-raised pedestal as Ohio’s other famed air and space travelers, Connor disagreed:

“When you think of the Wright Brothers, Neil Armstrong, John Glenn, those guys were daring pioneers. I don’t think I begin to rise to that level.

“It’s still space exploration, but with the developments and the training, its dramatically different today. It’s far safer.

“The people I mentioned, their place in history is well earned and I’m just happy to represent Ohio and the Dayton area and maybe be a small part of it.”

“The most difficult, challenging thing I’ve ever done’

Connor has always been one to push the envelope, whether it’s been racing cars and airplanes – he’s flown 16 types of aircraft, including fighter jets and helicopters – climbing some of the world’s most famous mountains, white water rafting or, just last April, taking part in dives to the very deepest part of the Pacific Ocean, nearly 36,000 feet down to the bottom of the Mariana Trench.

But this undertaking, he said: “Is the most difficult, most challenging thing I’ve ever done in my life. On the flip side, it’s far more important than I originally thought it would be because of the way it relates to research.”

Axiom sees this voyage – and those that will follow – as the first steps in the far more expansive goal of commercializing Low Earth orbit. And it’s a plan fully supported by NASA, which now spends $3 billion a year on the ISS, but is preparing for its Artemis missions to the Moon and, one day, Mars.

With the help of ventures like Axiom – which plans to begin building its own space station in 2024 because the aging ISS likely will be decommissioned and deorbited some six or seven years later – NASA can continue to use Low Earth orbit as a training and testing ground for its deep space missions.

While some folks have focused in the reported $55 million each of the Ax-1 astronauts is said to have paid to take part in this mission – and Axiom has not disputed the figure though Connor said he and the others are bound by a non-disclosure deal from revealing the price tag – there are reasons for the massive expenditure.

“If we, as a nation or a world, are really going to move space forward, you’re going to have to get the private sector involved,” Connor told journalist Will Ujek last month. “The fact is, whether anyone likes it or not, that initial investment is going to be really high.”

And Connor is a guy who has earned his money.

After graduating from Alter High School in 1968 and Ohio University four years later, he was a Volkswagen salesman in the Dayton area and then helped launch Newcom Tavern in the Oregon District.

He founded his first business – Orlando Computer Corp. – in 1982 and 10 years later began the Connor Group, which has grown into a $3.5 billion business.

He gives a lot of that money back to the community though. The nonprofit arm of his company – Kids & Community Partners – donates substantial amounts to everything from Dayton Children’s Hospital to DECA and the Mayo Clinic.

He’s been a big supporter of the University of Dayton and especially its athletic programs.

He’s about to open The Greater Dayton School, Ohio’s first private non-religious school that will eventually include 600 under-resourced children, all at no cost to their families.

Over the next 10 years, he’s committed to giving back $400 million to further aid underserved children in the Dayton area and medical research.

Multiple crews on ISS

The Ax-1 mission comes at a time of rising tensions between the United States and Russia over Vladimir Putin’s invasion of Ukraine.

The space station – which is the size of a football field – has been joint venture of the U.S., Russia, Canada, Japan and Europe for the past 23 years. It is divided into an America Orbital Segment and a Russian Orbital Segment, where a Russian crew is now on board.

There’s a crew from another U.S. mission – three Americans and a German – already on the ISS, too.

NASA has recently announced it is looking at ways it could operate the space station alone – without Russia providing the propulsion to keep it in orbit – should it ever come to that.

Before the ISS is decommissioned in 2030 or after, Russia plans to build a space station with China that will orbit the moon and the U.S. is teaming up with the space agencies of Europe, Japan and Canada to do the same.

As of now, though, it’s mostly business as usual, Connor said:

“We don’t talk politics up there and we all understand it’s essential that everybody works together to keep the ISS functioning.”

He said it’s been a good relationship over the years and he hope it stays that way:

“If you ask me as a private astronaut what I think, I can say I’d hate to see the actions of one individual ruin over 20 years of teamwork and cooperation.”

Lopez-Alegria – who was part of four space missions when he was with NASA and once went up with a Russian crew of cosmonauts, aboard a Soyuz spacecraft and speaks Russian fluently – has said he and the Ax-1 crew would like to visit the Russian side during this mission.

“If we’re invited, that would be great,” Connor said. “I’m hoping all three crews up there get together for some meals.”

But he also admitted there wouldn’t be much time for socializing:

“All four of us are going to be extremely busy. We’re not going to be sitting around ... being tourists.”

Like NASA said, they’re astronauts.