Eytan Stibbe

Eytan Meir Stibbe (; born January 12, 1958) is an Israeli former fighter pilot, businessman and commercial astronaut.

In November 2020 he paid Axiom Space to become a private astronaut on a ten day mission to the International Space Station aboard a SpaceX Crew Dragon spacecraft on Axiom Mission 1, a private crewed orbital spaceflight. The stay was extended to 17 days.

At the beginning of July, 2025, Eytan Stibbe was appointed Chancellor of the International Space University (ISU) in France. In this role, he will take part in the university's academic programs, help strengthen ties with international partners, promote educational and research initiatives, and support ISU's global community of students and alumni. The appointment is for a three-year term.

Early life Stibbe was born in Haifa, Israel, in 1958, to parents who had immigrated from the Netherlands in 1953. He grew up in the United States until the age of 7, when the family moved back to Ramat Gan, a suburb of Tel Aviv. His father was a soil and water researcher at the Volcani Institute in Rehovot, and his mother was a social worker at a mental health clinic in Ramat Gan. Stibbe studied at the in Ramat Gan and was active in the Israeli Scouts (Tzofim) movement.

Military career

In July 1976, Stibbe entered the Israeli Air Force's fighter pilot training course. He first served as a Skyhawk pilot in Squadrons 102 and 140, then moved to Squadron 201 (Phantoms) and continued on to become an F-16 pilot in Squadron 117. During his time in the IAF he was assigned to 117 Squadron flying F-16s under the command of Colonel Ilan Ramon, who later became the first ever Israeli to fly in space aboard STS-107.

He is a member of the advisory committee of Bridges Israel, an impact investment fund that invests in Israeli businesses. Stibbe is a partner in HarTech, which develops simulation systems; LISOD, Hospital of Israeli Oncology in Ukraine; Pangea Therapeutics, a digital healthcare company that develops highly personalized cancer medications and treatments based on computational genomics; and Proprep, an online STEM tutorial company.

Spaceflight On 8 April 2022, Stibbe took off for the International Space Station (ISS) from Cape Canaveral as a space tourist. Stibbe is the 583rd space traveler in the world. He became the second Israeli in space, after Ilan Ramon, who died onboard Columbia while returning from space. Stibbe described his space tourism as the Rakia mission, which was the title of the book published with the fragments of the diary of his late commander, which survived reentry, and was discovered in a field in Texas, and now part of the National Library of Israel. He flew to the ISS aboard SpaceX Axiom Space-1, paying for his own ticket to ride. Stibbe was accompanying and demonstrating many Israeli technologies during this mission along with AstroRad a radiation protective vest from StemRad.