Las Vegas – 2025 ASCEND opened Tuesday to a packed room of spellbound space industry members as they watched a live linkup with NASA flight engineers – Lt. Col. Nichole Ayers, USAF, and Col. Anne McClain, USA – onboard the International Space Station (ISS).
The conversation, facilitated by Dave Cavossa, president of the Commercial Space Federation (CSF), touched on the ISS’s contributions as an orbiting science laboratory over the last 25 years, and key lessons learned that will benefit future orbiting stations.
McClain, who has been to the ISS twice, the first time in 2019, said that the way astronauts live and work in space might be viewed as strange to an outsider. “We have this common culture among the astronauts,” she explained, noting that there is a common bond among them regardless of nationality. “We have three countries represented right now and we recently had a visiting crew that brought it up to six countries.”
McClain was referring to Axiom Space’s recent Ax-4 mission, which included retired NASA astronaut Peggy Whitson and crew members from India, Poland, and Hungary. The mission marked these nations’ first mission to the ISS.
Ayers, who is on her first ISS mission, said, “On day one for most of us we get our bearings and settle into the space station, but [Ax-4 astronauts] hit the ground running, executing science and research. It was really incredible to watch them work.”
Both astronauts shared details on the impact of the ISS for benefiting humankind and what they found unexpected from their time in orbit.
Ayers said she, like many, experienced the overview effect of seeing Earth from space. “It’s such a fragile blue marble; it’s just a reminder that we need to take really good care of it.”
Outpost for Life-Changing Experiments
More than 200 experiments are currently hosted on and outside the station, ranging from studies of oceans, weather patterns, forests and vegetation, to crystallization experiments to create more effective therapies for diseases. The astronauts volunteer for some studies that will help NASA understand how the human body reacts to being in microgravity over time.
“A lot of exciting science happens here,” said Ayers, pointing to one study that looks at what happens above the clouds when thunderstorms strike.
“If you or someone you know has cancer, Parkinson’s, muscular dystrophy, heart disease, or osteoporosis, then space station research has directly impacted them,” added McClain. “Everything we do on board the ISS is within the NASA motto, ‘For the benefit of all.’”
The laboratory has hosted more than 500 experiments on protein crystal growth alone, making it the largest single type of research done on station. Some of these crystallization experiments helped pave the way for a new cancer-treating drug, Keytruda®, McClain said.
The orbiting laboratory has five more years of life before new privately funded space stations take the mantle of ensuring a continuous human presence in orbit. “As humans, we naturally want to explore. Plenty of people remember the Apollo moon landing, but we have adults all across the world who only remember a world where people lived in space,” said Ayers.
Outlook on Commercial Space Stations
“NASA’s commercial space strategy is to get more commercial companies and countries involved in low Earth orbit. It will make those services cheaper for NASA and that will allow us to continue on with the Artemis program,” said Ayers. “The legacy of the International Space Station is creating that fascination to explore the universe that will carry through to the moon and onto Mars as we build the Artemis program.”
Both astronauts credited Mission Control and the teams that support Mission Control as the brains behind NASA’s missions. They noted that astronauts serve as the eyes and ears for the technical experts on the ground.
“Two things NASA does best is solving problems and managing risk. That is our irreplaceable skill that I think NASA has and what we share with commercial companies and with other countries,” McClain said.
How is the ISS preparing for the new missions to the moon and Mars? Ayers said that it will take a lot of engineering minds to accomplish those missions. Problems that must be solved include how to ensure humans can do long-term space flights and operate with less comms to the ground as well as how to produce food and water and how to recycle everything the astronauts use.
“We have to get to the point where we’re recycling 98% to 99% of our water use just to get to the moon and Mars,” said Ayers. “All those things are being tested here on the ISS. It’s a great test bed … We’ve been providing those lessons learned for 25 plus years and we’re going to continue to do that through 2030.”
Axiom Space CEO Addresses ASCEND
As the astronauts signed off, Cavossa invited Tejpaul Bhatia, CEO of Axiom Space, to join him on stage to share his journey to this point.
“I’ve been passionate about space since I was three years old,” said the 10-year veteran founder of three startups, who recalled telling a friend and digital investor of his desire to be in the space sector. “I told him, ‘I’m obsessed with space, but I’m not a rocket scientist. I’m not a billionaire. So, what can I do?’”
A skill he had was leading startups and advising founders was an important service given that 9 out of 10 startups fail. Speaking to the startup founders in the ASCEND audience, Bhatia shared, “You think that once startups are capitalized that it gets better but even down to Series D, they have a 70% failure rate,” he said.
Supply and Demand for Space
A key question, he noted, was whether there is more demand than supply for space missions in low Earth orbit. Axiom assessed the market and determined there was far more demand than available supply.
He doubled down on his prediction of a multi-trillion-dollar space economy. “I think this is the biggest technical revolution, societal revolution, diplomatic revolution in human history. This feels like 1995 and the Internet. Imagine if in 1995 you knew what was coming with [online] advertising [and] e-commerce…what happened with cloud [computing], what happened with mobile [communications], what’s happening with AI.”
Axiom anticipates the exponential growth of human activity in low Earth orbit, Bhatia shared, citing key growth markets in pharmaceutical and biomedical research, space-based data and communications, and advanced manufacturing.
“I can unequivocally tell you there’s far more demand than there is supply.”
“We’ve done four missions now,” said Bhatia, noting that the company now has a pipeline backlog of contracts for the next four missions. One gating factor, however, is the lack of launch opportunities.
He predicts the next five years will be eventful for the space sector. “Something is going to happen and 2030 is that moment, and now is the time.”
Audience Weighs In
Following the session, Michelle Lucas, CEO of the STEM nonprofit Higher Orbits, reflected on both the ISS and Axiom Space speakers.
“It was an outside-of-this-world, inspirational way to start this event, to have two astronauts in space talking to us about what we are all here to be part of,” she began, calling space “a team sport.”
“Being able to see two of the humans who are living and working in space is such a great motivator to get us launched into all the discussions,” she added.
Lucas also enjoyed the Axiom discussion. “Everybody thinks it’s billionaires going to space and there is a piece of that, but Axiom’s four missions, with the three crew members from different countries who are told that this is their vehicle, literally and figuratively, to get to space – it’s changing the landscape. When you want to start talking about more people having access, this is the way you do it. So, Tejpaul talking about this was great insight,” she concluded.
