First private astronauts arrive at ISS

The first all-private astronaut team to fly to the International Space Station (ISS)reached the floating research site on Saturday, the US space agency NASA confirmed.

The four-person crew docked at the ISS at shortly before 1300 UTC, almost 24 hours after they'd lifted off from NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Cape Canaveral, Florida on Friday. 

The Houston-based startup Axiom Space Inc. is sponsoring the mission, called Axiom-1, which carries three private citizens and one seasoned astronaut.

A SpaceX Crew Dragon capsule, propelled by a Falcon 9 rocket, carried the group to the ISS. SpaceX also directed mission control for the flight from its headquarters near Los Angeles.

Axiom, SpaceX and NASA are working together to make the mission happen. The three have said the mission is a major step in the latest expansion of commercial space ventures.

Retired NASA Spanish-American astronaut Michael Lopez-Alegria is leading the flight, along with his second in command Larry Connor, an entrepreneur and aerobatics aviator from Ohio, designated as the mission pilot.

Also on board as mission specialists are Israeli investor-philanthropist and former fighter pilot Eytan Stibbe and Canadian businessman and philanthropist Mark Pathy.

Not a tourist flight

Now that they have reached the ISS, NASA is responsible for the astronauts. The operations director said this mission would be very different to the much-publicized "space tourism" flights, lasting just a few minutes, of billionaires like Amazon's Jeff Bezos and Virgin Group's Richard Branson.

"The distinction is that our guys aren't going up there and floating around for eight days taking pictures and looking out of the cupola," Derek Hassmann, operations director of Axiom Space, told reporters at a prelaunch briefing. 

"I mean we have a very intensive and research-oriented timeline plan for them," Hassmann said.

Axiom executives said the Axiom-1 crew members underwent rigorous astronaut training with both NASA and SpaceX to prepare them for eight days of science and biomedical research.

It includes research on brain health, cardiac stem cells, cancer and aging, as well as a technology demonstration to produce optics using the surface tension of fluids in microgravity, company executives said.

During their stay, they will share the ISS with seven regular crew members, three US astronauts, a German astronaut and three Russian cosmonauts.

rs, jcg/msh (Reuters, AFP)