Israeli-Dutch astronaut to travel to the ISS next month

An Israeli businessman with Dutch roots will travel to the International Space Station (ISS) next month as a tourist. Eytan Stibbe, 64, has bought a seat from a new space flight firm. His flight, called Axiom Mission 1 or AX-1 is scheduled for March 30. About a week later, Stibbe will return to Earth in a SpaceX Dragon capsule that will splashdown just off the coast of Florida.

Stibbe was born in 1958 in the Israeli city of Haifa. His father, Hugo Stibbe, was a prisoner of war in the Dutch East Indies for four years during the Second World War. His mother, Elma Sara van Adelsberg, survived the Holocaust in the Netherlands by going into hiding. In 1953 they married in Amsterdam and shortly after they emigrated to Israel. Stibbe was a pilot in the Israeli Air Force, and became a celebrity in Israel when he shot down three Syrian fighter jets and a helicopter in a single dogfight in 1982. He left the Air Force two years later and moved into the business world, where he earned a fortune as a defense and development contractor, and later as an impact investor.

The Israeli astronaut will fly to the ISS with three others. The flight is being arranged by the company Axiom Space. They want to sell commercial trips to space, like Elon Musk's SpaceX, Blue Origin from Amazon founder Jeff Bezos, and Virgin Galactic from Richard Branson. In about ten years, Axiom wants to operate its own space station as a flying hotel. NASA intends to hand off more of its Earth orbital missions to private companies, so that the US government can focus on returning to the moon, and eventually the first manned flights to Mars.

In a press release posted on NASA’s website, Phil McAlister, director of commercial spaceflight at NASA, said, “This represents another significant milestone in our efforts to create a low-Earth orbit economy. I wish these Axiom crew members safe travels, and I hope they find their time in space productive and enjoyable.”

Actor Tom Cruise was supposed to go into space with Stibbe. He was planning, along with a producer, on shooting a new film on the ISS. However, those plans have now been shelved.

Stibbe will be the second Israeli in space. His friend, Ilan Ramon, was the first in 2003. He flew on the space shuttle Columbia, which exploded on reentry, killing Ramon and six other crew members.