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HSR veteran Larry Connor was busy making history by piloting a SpaceX Axiom-1 rocket and working at the International Space Station.
When long-time Historic Sportscar Racing (HSR) competitor Larry Connor had to withdraw from last month’s race at Road Atlanta, he not only sent his regards to race organizers, but also the reason why he would be missing.
It was a reason never heard before in any form of racing: Connor wasn’t able to race because he would be taking part in a 17-day mission to the International Space Station as one of four members of the first all-private astronaut mission to go to the ISS.
And while he might have reached 150-mph plus in his 2005 Audi RS LMP race car, that was slow motion compared to the speed Connor, who served as the mission’s pilot, reached in the SpaceX Axiom-1, orbiting the Earth at 17,500 mph before it connected with the ISS.
Yes, you read that right, Connor was at the wheel, doing 17,500 mph.
Connor first got the idea of going into space after reading a story in 2014 about an individual who flew with the Russians to the ISS.
“I thought that’d be an unbelievable opportunity and challenge, so I started researching it,” Connor told Autoweek in an exclusive interview. “In 2018, I found my way to a company called Axiom, a company formed by a number of former NASA people, and they had teamed up with SpaceX.
“The more I got to learn about Axiom and SpaceX, the more I became convinced that they were the people to go with and so I signed up with them and became the pilot on the AX-1 mission, which was the first all-private or all-civilian mission ever to the International Space Station.”
While Connor and the other astronauts each had to pay a very pricey ticket to ride—a reported $55 million per person—it was an out-of-this-world experience that proved to be well worth it.
The 72-year-old Connor is a multi-millionaire investor, entrepreneur and nonprofit activist who owns The Connor Group, a real estate investment firm that also is involved in a number of nonprofit endeavors, including Connor Kids Academy, which sends kids to sports training camps to develop their athletic skills and life-skills and building character.
Connor and his co-crew members all underwent the same training regular NASA astronauts undergo, nearly one full year of training and testing at Space-X in California as well as NASA in Houston and Florida.
“It was very, very challenging, hard work but a rewarding journey that led to our scheduled 10-day mission, which turned out to be a 17-day mission to the ISS (April 8-25), where we conducted over 150 hours of experiments across 25 different scientific and medical research projects,” Connor said.
“My training was over 1050 hours, and I was in space for 17 days.”
“We were private astronauts. We met all of the standards that NASA and the FAA have established to do that. We are not space tourists. Space tourists are people who go with (Richard Branson’s) Virgin Galactic and (Jeff Bezos’) Blue Origin, they train for you know, a day or day and a half and they go into space. My training was over 1,050 hours, and I was in space for 17 days.”
Connor said it was easy to draw comparisons between his racing exploits and piloting the Axiom-1.
“When you’re in a race, you’ve got to be locked on in the moment, concentrating on the task at hand,” he said. “And so that was the same thing for us. I was the pilot and Mike Lopez-Alegria, as the commander (a veteran of four NASA flights), we’ve got a number of things we need to be doing. It was exhilarating but we’re pretty calm and focused on the mission at hand.
“And then quite frankly, once we got to the ISS, we went into 14-hour work days for the first six or seven days because of the depth and breadth of all the scientific and medical experiments we were doing.”
And while he enjoyed all the activities and tests he was involved in while at the ISS, the high point of Connor’s journey was the return to Earth.
“I’ve never thought it’s about me,” he said. “I’ve always thought it's about a team and the mission and all the people from Axiom and SpaceX and NASA who support it. That's kind of my feeling.
“I will tell you that on reentry, the last 10 minutes before splashdown is spectacular. And while the launch was great and you really accelerate after you lift off with those nine Merlin engines, but the reentry is even more so, it’s very dynamic. You’re literally falling out of the sky. You come from 100 miles above the Earth’s surface to splashdown in literally a matter of minutes. You see the drogue chutes deploy at 12,000 feet, and then the mains and splashdown. It was exhilarating.”
In so doing, Connor made history in at least two different ways. First, he became the second-oldest person to pilot a space mission, joining late astronaut Sen. John Glenn, who flew the U.S. Space Shuttle Discovery at the age of 77 in 1998. Glenn and Connor are both from Ohio.
Second, and perhaps more importantly, Connor became the first individual to not only orbit 225 miles above the Earth, he also completed three dives in five days in May 2021 in the Mariana Trench, an area of the Western Pacific Ocean that has a known depth of more than 36,000 feet—almost seven miles.
Connor has won a number of aerobatic flying competitions and has climbed both Mount Kilimanjaro and Mount Rainier. Racing-wise, he’s competed for years in the SCORE off-road series (including winning the trophy truck spec class championship in 2015), as well as two wins each in the Baja 1000 and Baja 500. He’s also a two-time Formula Atlantic SCCA Runoffs National Champion and has participated in both the 24 Hours of Le Mans and the Rolex 24 At Daytona.
Yet while he may be an adrenaline junkie, don’t call Connor a daredevil.
“First off, I don’t think that I’m a daredevil,” he said. “I think there are no old daredevils. Whether it’s in racing, or aerobatic competitions, or going into space or going to the bottom of the ocean, I have never done anything that I thought the risks we couldn't control or that there was unacceptable risks.
“So we have always been very safety conscious, make sure we’ve got the best equipment, make sure we’ve got the best team, make sure we’ve got the best strategy. And so I’m convinced that I’ve been able to do these, and I'm still around today because of that philosophy and approach.”
When Connor and the crew finally returned to Earth on April 25, NASA officials advised them to take it easy for a couple of weeks to regain their equilibrium and the like.
“So generally, NASA would tell you that the recovery is going to be a month to two months,” Connor said. “Generally speaking, they don’t even really want you to drive a car or fly an airplane for the first couple of weeks.
“My recovery has been very good and really pretty quick. We splashed down on a Monday, and within two or three days, I was back working out. And then within a week, I felt like I was about 90 to 95% recovered. And now, two-plus weeks in, I’m back driving, working out, doing everything. Obviously, last week we went and did the two-day test at NOLA that was super successful. So yeah, I’m back at 100%.”
That’s right, Connor was out testing his sports car nearly two weeks ago at NOLA near New Orleans. And he gets back into the swing of competition this weekend in an HSR event at Road America in Wisconsin.
His upcoming racing schedule includes a number of other races this year as well, including two at Watkins Glen, another at Virginia International Raceway, another one at Road America and possibly Sebring.
While some might think a trip to space would be the culmination of Connor’s high-flying ways, think again. He’s already thinking about a few different encores, including potentially another return to space in the next year or two. He’s also planning a high-altitude (30,000-feet) parachute jump this summer in North Carolina .
“My approach is it’s one endeavor at a time,” Connor said. “I don't personally think it’s about age. I think it’s personally about how fit are you, what’s your mindset, how do you mentally approach things? And again, that’s true in racing.”
Connor is mild-mannered and very calm. He doesn’t brag about his exploits and accomplishments in life. Being that way is just part of his DNA.
“I’ve been very fortunate to be able to do a lot of things and have a number of successes,” he said humbly. “So I really still always think about that’s why I live life. You know, when we raced at Baja, it was as a team. When we do sportscar racing team, I really like being part of a team. I like seeing other people have success.
“It’s also why we have a big not-for-profit, called Connor Group Kids and Community Partners. We think if you’ve been successful, you have both the opportunity and the obligation to share the wealth and give back.
“I also think that we’re ordinary people who have had the opportunity to do extraordinary things. I don’t think you should get too high an opinion of yourself. I think it’s important to stay grounded and stay connected to people and appreciate other people, whether it’s in racing, or work or family or life.”
Now that he’s back on Earth, while he took what he achieved in space in stride, Connor knows the significance of what he and his teammates did.
“The first thought is, we’re the first, let’s make sure we’re not the last,” he said with a slight chuckle, before returning back to seriousness. “We’ve got to get this thing right. We have to perform to the professional astronaut standards, which are very, very high standards and I believe that we were successful in doing so.”
Follow Autoweek contributor Jerry Bonkowski on Twitter @JerryBonkowski