Four passengers, including former NASA scientist, will go on the first private mission to the ISS today

Houston-based aerospace firm Axiom Mission has completed preparations to send a former NASA scientist and three philanthropists on the first private mission to the space station. This mission will travel to the International Space Center on Friday.

This will be the first space mission of Axiom Mission 1 (Ax-1). Along with this, this is also the first completely private astronaut mission to the International Space Station (ISS). This mission will be launched on Friday at 11.17 am local time and 8.47 pm Indian time. It will be launched from Launch Complex 39A at Kennedy Space Center in Florida, USA.

Beginning of a new era of human spaceflight

The American space firm has said that through this we are beginning a new era in human spaceflight. We are moving on to the next generation platform. It's going to make working, living and research in space more widespread and accessible to more people.

As part of SpaceX's mission, these four passengers are being sent to the space station. Of these, three passengers have paid for this journey. Along with them will be retired scientists of the US Space Agency (NASA). They will be sent aboard SpaceX's spacecraft Dragon Crew. The AX-1 crew includes former NASA astronaut and Axiom Vice President Michael Lopez Alegria. Apart from them are American technology entrepreneur Larry Connor, Canadian businessman Mark Pethe and Eyton Stibbe of Israel. On Wednesday, the X-1 crew did a dress rehearsal for today's launch. The Falcon 9 rocket carrying them was also tested on this occasion.

Space station will reach Saturday morning

If the mission went on as scheduled and all goes well, then the crew of X-1 will reach the space station at 7:30 am Indian time on Saturday, April 9, at 5 pm Indian time. There are currently seven people living in the space station. Currently on the ISS are NASA astronauts Thomas Marshburn, Raji Chari, European Space Agency astronauts Matthias Maurer, Oleg Artemyev, Denis Matveev and Sergei Korsakov. All of them will welcome the crew of AX-1.