Three businessmen and a former astronaut set off on Friday in a SpaceX rocket for the first fully private mission to the International Space Station (ISS), where they will stay for more than a week.

Take-off took place at 11:17 a.m. local time (15:17 GMT) from Kennedy Space Center in Cape Canaveral, Florida.

Some rookies have traveled to the ISS since 2000. Russia sent a film crew and a Japanese billionaire last year. But they all did it on Soyuz rockets and accompanied by cosmonauts.

This time, the company Axiom Space, which organized the trip in collaboration with SpaceX and NASA, paid for the use of its station.

“We’re extending the land borders of commerce into space,” said Bill Nelson, head of the US space agency, shortly before takeoff.

The commander of the mission, called Ax-1, is Hispanic-American Michael López-Alegría, a former astronaut already aboard the ISS.

Other members of the team paid tens of millions of dollars to be part of the mission. The role of the pilot is occupied by the American Larry Connor, the owner of a real estate firm.

Also on board are Canadian Mark Pathy, chairman of an investment firm, and former pilot Eytan Stibbe, co-founder of an investment fund.

Stibbe will become the second Israeli astronaut in history, after Ilan Ramon, who died in the explosion of the American space shuttle Columbia on his return from the ISS in 2003.

“He was a good friend,” Stibbe said at a press conference last week. “I will continue the experience that began 19 years ago, focused on observing storms.”

scientific experiences

The four men have a very busy agenda and about 25 experiences to perform in aging, heart health or stem cells.

“The experiments I did there, coming from Canadian universities and research institutes, probably wouldn’t have been done in space without this mission,” Pathy said. Said.

Hence, among others, Ax-1 members reject the definition of space tourists.

“I think it’s important to distinguish private tourists from private astronauts,” Connor said. Said. The first is “We spend 10 to 15 hours training (and) 5 to 10 minutes (…) 750 to 1,000 hours training in space.”

He and Lopez-Alegria trained on SpaceX’s Dragon capsule system.

Everyone learned how to react in an emergency at the station. But also to perform the tasks of daily life in zero gravity.

However, their training is less extensive than professional astronauts, who must be able to go into space or repair equipment.

Ax-1 members “will use the bathrooms, but if they break them, our team will fix them,” NASA official Dana Weigel said on Thursday.

Future private station

The Dragon capsule will dock with the ISS around 0730 (1130 GMT) on Saturday.

Upon arrival, the crew will visit the station before starting work.

It’s just SpaceX’s sixth flight with humans (fifth to the ISS). The first flight took place less than two years ago.

Axiom Space has signed a four-mission agreement with SpaceX, and NASA has officially approved the launch of a second Ax-2.

It will be the beginning of a phase for Axiom Space towards an ambitious goal: the construction of its own space station.

“It’s important for us to be able to replicate these missions on a “smaller scale,” said company president Michael Suffredini.

The first module of the custom station is scheduled for launch in September 2024. The structure will first connect to the ISS before becoming autonomous when the orbital lab is deactivated, which is expected around 2030.

This move to privatize low orbit is led by NASA, which wants to monetize these special missions and has to hire the services of special structures to concentrate on distant exploration instead of managing the operation of a station in the long term.