On Friday morning, a crew of all private people launched from Kennedy Space Center on their way to the International Space Station (ISS).
The historic expedition is the first of its kind in space exploration involving the commercial sector.
During a live broadcast of the flight, SpaceX engineer Kate Tice described the launch as “absolutely picture perfect.”
Three entrepreneurs paid a total of $165 million for their tickets to space on the SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket, which cost $55 million apiece.
Larry Connor, the managing partner of an Ohio real estate firm, Mark Pathy, the CEO of a Canadian investment firm, and Eytan Stibbe, a businessman and former Israeli Air Force fighter pilot, are among the paying passengers.
Michael Lopez-Alegria, a former NASA astronaut and Axiom vice president, served as their guide. Axiom is the Houston-based company that commissioned the flight with SpaceX.
The privatization of space tourism and travel is gaining traction, with Elon Musk’s SpaceX competing for wealthy customers alongside Jeff Bezos’ Blue Origin and Richard Branson’s Virgin Galactic.
The astronauts are scheduled to arrive at the International Space Station on Saturday, where they will stay for eight days before returning to Earth in SpaceX’s Dragon spaceship.
Axiom is preparing a series of privately sponsored journeys to the International Space Station, which were previously impossible until NASA revised its policy to enable private people to enter the station in 2019.
Axiom is also in the process of developing its own space station, which the corporation hopes will eventually replace the ISS.