First ISS space tourism mission from SpaceX to be launched

Three private customers and one astronaut will be the passengers of the first ever SpaceX trip to the International Space Station.

Private startup Axiom Space will be in charge of coordinating this revolutionary trip to the ISS. The mission will be commanded by former NASA astronaut Michael Lopez-Alegría and the launch of the SpaceX Crew Dragon capsule will take place from the Kennedy Space Center in Florida today. The Dragon will be carried to orbit by a Falcon 9 rocket. This mission was named called AX-1 and will be the second space tourism trip for the company.

The space adventure will last for eight days, as the crew will participate in several science experiments along with the astronauts on the International Space Station.

But who are the passengers?

- Michael Lopez-Alegría, 63 years old, a former astronaut that left NASA in 2012, currently employed by Axiom. Lopez-Alegría will be the commander of AX-1.

- Businessman Larry Connor, 72 years old, the founder of real estate company The Connor Group.

"My journey really started seven or eight years ago. I've always been interested in space, and I started thinking about it after I read about an American who went to Russia and went on the Soyuz", he commented for the Dayton Society of Natural History.

"We are going to truly train to the professional astronaut standards", he added.

- Mark Pathy, 52 years old, founder and CEO of Mavrik Corp, a Canadian investment company.

Pathy declared about the exciting mission: "It is a lot of money. I feel very fortunate to be able to afford this kind of trip. Obviously not many people can. But at the same time I don't have to, fortunately, choose between doing something like this or being active philanthropically."

“[Going to space has] been a dream since I was a little kid and watched Captain Kirk bouncing around the universe in the Enterprise", he said.

- Eytan Stibbe, 64 years old, former pilot in the Israeli Air Force, now a businessman, owner of the Vital Capital firm.

“As a kid on dark nights I used to watch the stars and wait patiently to see a shooting star, and I asked myself what is there beyond what the eyes see?", Stibbe declared.

Axiom is a company that books private space trips with SpaceX, for prices that are not at all cheap. Despite Axiom not disclosing financial terms of these arrangements, it was formerly speculated that a trip to the International Space Station costs as much as $55 million per seat.

Source: cnn.com