The first all-private mission to the ISS will begin today. Here’s When You Can Watch

The mission is being organized by American company Axiom Space, It will send a crew of four to the space station, although unlike previous flights, this mission will not include any current NASA astronauts and all crew members are civilians.

One of the crew members is ex-retired NASA Astronaut, He is currently employed by a Houston-based firm and the rest are entrepreneurs.

AX-1 Launch: Passengers Aboard

The mission will send four crew members, who are all civilians.

This includes:

-Michael Lopez-Alegria, who has extensive experience as a former NASA astronaut, will be the commander of the X-1 mission.

-American investor and private pilot Larry Connor

-Israeli investor and former fighter pilot Eyton Stibbe

-Canadian entrepreneur Mark Pethe on mission.

Pethy, Stibbe and Connor, each reportedly paid $55 million (about Rs 420 crore) for their seat.

AX-1 Launch: Time

Axiom Space has informed that this liftoff is going to happen at 8:47 pm Indian time from NASA’s Florida Space Center. The astronauts will be launched on a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket and reach the ISS in the Crew Dragon spacecraft.

Ax-1 Launch: How to Watch

Axiom Space, NASA and SpaceX have joined hands to offer live coverage of the event from 5:20 pm IST to 9 pm IST. Coverage will cover the life travel of the crew. Axiom and SpaceX will begin covering pre-launch and launch activities live on Axiom Space’s official website. NASA will join the live broadcast during the last hour of launch coverage. Broadcasts will resume for docking when the crewed spacecraft rejoins the ISS at around 3 p.m. Saturday.

Space tourists have visited the ISS before, but not as part of an entirely private crew. For a large part of space history, most space flights have been undertaken by government-run agencies. But these private flights are set to replace space tourism.

Many private companies are eyeing the lucrative industry. At the top of the pack is Elon Musk-owned SpaceX, which has focused largely on NASA contracts, but this mission shows it’s flexing its muscles to tap other private players as well.