A SpaceX rocketship was due for liftoff on Friday carrying four men approved by NASA to become the first all-private astronaut team ever launched to the International Space Station (ISS), a milestone in the commercialization of space.
The four selected for the debut flight and orbital science mission of Houston-based startup Axiom Space Inc were set to blast off at 11:17 a.m. EDT from NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Cape Canaveral, Florida.
The mission, representing a partnership among Axiom, SpaceX and NASA, is hailed by all three as a key step in the latest expansion of commercial space ventures collectively referred to by insiders as the low-Earth orbit economy, or "LEO economy" for short. Lopez-Alegria, 63, is the Spanish-born mission commander and Axiom's vice president of business development. He is set to be joined by Larry Connor, a real estate and technology entrepreneur and aerobatics aviator from Ohio designated as the mission pilot. Connor is in his 70s but the company did not provide his precise age.
"They're not up there to paste their noses on the windows. They're up there to do meaningful research, each in their own way," Axiom co-founder and CEO Michael Suffredini told a recent pre-flight news briefing. Launched to orbit in 1998, the space station has been continuously occupied since 2000 under a U.S.-Russian-led partnership including Canada, Japan and 11 European countries.
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