First private mission reaches International Space Station

The first fully private mission reached the International Space Station early Saturday with a four-member crew from a startup company.

NASA hailed the three-way 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.

After launching from the Kennedy Space Center in Florida on Friday, the crew of the Crew Dragon capsule entered the space station nearly two hours later.

Michael Lopez-Alegria, a dual citizen of the United States and Spain, is the commander of the Axiom Mission 1 (Ax-1), which he last visited in 2007.

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

Connor said in comments shown on NASA's live feed that they understand there is a responsibility.

He said that they need to get it right as the first civilian crew.

The price for tickets, which include eight days on the outpost, is $55 million.

The first all-private crew to fly a private spaceship to the International Space Station is part of the mission called Ax-1.

NASA and Houston-based Axiom pay for transportation and use of the International Space Station.

There are research projects.

The four will carry out 25 research projects on the International Space Station, including a demonstration of smart tiles that form a robotic swarm.

Another experiment involves using cancer stem cells to grow mini tumors, and then using the accelerated aging environment of microgravity to identify markers for early detection of cancer.

The operations director of Axiom Space told reporters at a pre-launch briefing that their guys aren't going up there and floating around for eight days taking pictures and looking out of the cupola.

Ilan Ramon, Israel's first astronaut, died in the 2003 Space Shuttle Columbia disaster when the spaceship disintegrated upon reentering the earth.

Surviving pages from Ramon's space diary and other items will be brought to the station.

The regular crew of the station includes three Americans and a German, and three Russians on the US side.

NASA has approved in principle the second mission of the company's partnership with the company.

The voyages are the first step of a grander goal: to build a private space station. The first module will be launched in the year 2024.

The station will initially be attached to the International Space Station, before eventually flying autonomously when the station retires and is deorbited.

There will be a new year in 2022.

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