During the week of October 18, Teledyne Brown Engineering’s Mission Operations and Integration (MO&I) team participated in training a team of Axiom Space private astronauts for an upcoming mission to the International Space Station (ISS).

The crew members, Commander Michael López-Alegría of the USA and Spain, Pilot Larry Connor of the USA, Mission Specialist Mark Pathy of Canada, and Mission Specialist Eytan Stibbe of Israel will fly to the ISS aboard the SpaceX Crew Dragon.

This groundbreaking flight will be the first private ISS mission in history, bringing Axiom a step closer to its goal of launching and operating its under-construction commercial space station, an accessible low-Earth orbit platform for research, product development, manufacturing, and space travelers of all backgrounds.

Teledyne Brown Engineering Life Sciences Glovebox (LSG) Operators conducted a training session with the Axiom-1 crew at NASA Marshall Space Flight Center. The company also led a Q&A session with multiple MO&I personnel during the Payload Operations and Integration Working Group to coordinate how the Axiom crew will interface with the Payload Operations center during the upcoming mission.

“It is an exciting time for the space industry with so many resources focused on pushing past boundaries and advancing technologies beyond Earth,” stated Jan Hess, President of Teledyne Brown Engineering.

“We are seeing partnerships between NASA, industry, and private entities that are enabling innovations like never before,” she continued.

Teledyne Brown Engineering is the prime on the MO&I contract, which consists of all phases of flight including mission preparation, crew and flight controller training, and real time requirements for spaceflight operations and provides the critical link between the Ground Operations Team and the astronauts on the ISS.

Headquartered in Cummings Research Park, Teledyne Brown Engineering was the first high-tech firm to locate in Huntsville and has provided engineering and technology support to U.S. government space and defense programs since 1953.

Teledyne Brown Engineering has managed ISS Payload Operations for over 20 years, supplying over 150,000 hours of around-the-clock support. The company has played a major role in supporting NASA’s scientific research aboard the ISS through the integration of nearly 1,300 payloads while providing crew training activities for these payloads, developing experiment procedures, and delivering real-time support to science teams around the world.

The historic Axiom-1 mission, which will carry four private astronauts and a collection of science payloads, is scheduled to launch in February 2022.