First private mission launches for International Space Station

WASHINGTON: The first fully private mission to the International Space Station blasted off from Florida Friday with a four-member crew from startup company Axiom Space.

NASA has hailed the threeway partnership with Axiom and SpaceX as a key step towards commercializing the region of space known as “Low Earth Orbit,” leaving the agency to focus on more ambitious voyages deeper into the cosmos.

A SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket with the Crew Dragon capsule Endeavor launched at 11:17 am from the Kennedy Space Center, and the spaceship should dock at around 1145 GMT Saturday.

“We’re taking commercial business off the face of the Earth and putting it up in space,” said NASA chief Bill Nelson.

“To say that we’re excited is a huge understatement,” Axiom Space CEO Michael Suffredini told reporters after the launch, adding it was the culmination of years of work for the Houstonbased company, founded in 2016.

Commanding the Axiom Mission 1 (Ax-1) is former NASA astronaut Michael LopezAlegria, a dual citizen of the United States and Spain, who flew to space four times over his 20-year-career, and last visited the ISS in 2007.

He is joined by three paying crewmates: American real estate investor Larry Connor, Canadian investor and philanthropist Mark Pathy, and Israeli former fighter pilot, investor and philanthropist Eytan Stibbe.

The widely reported price for tickets – which includes eight days on the outpost, before eventual splashdown in the Atlantic – is US$55 million.

While wealthy private citizens have visited the ISS before, Ax-1 is the first mission featuring an all-private crew flying a private spacecraft to the outpost. Axiom pays SpaceX for transportation, and Nasa also charges Axiom for use of the ISS.