World's First All-Private Mission to ISS Lifts Off From Kennedy Space Center

The four-member crew aboard the SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket will stay on the ISS for eight days.

(Photo: NASA)

The world's first all-private flight to the International Space Station (ISS) took off from the Kennedy Space Center in Florida on Friday, 8 April.

The four-member crew aboard the SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket will stay on the ISS, which orbits 400 km above sea level, for eight days, reported AFP.

Ahead of the lift-off, NASA chief Bill Nelson said, "We're taking commercial business off the face of the Earth and putting it up in space."

The mission was organised by US company Axiom Space, with former NASA astronaut Michael Lopez-Alegria commanding the mission.

He has flown to space four times over his 20-year-career and last visited the ISS in 2007.

Other crewmates who had paid to visit the ISS are American real estate investor Larry Connor, Canadian investor and philanthropist Mark Pathy, and Israeli former fighter pilot, investor, and philanthropist Eytan Stibbe.

Ticket prices may go as high as $55 million for eight days on the outpost.

However, Axiom said that its mission was not for tourism purposes. The crew will carry out research projects, including an MIT technology demonstration of smart tiles that form a robotic swarm and self-assemble into space architecture.

(With inputs from AFP.)