A new milestone in our nascent era of commercial space travel lifts off from Florida on Friday with the Ax-1 private mission to the International Space Station.

Ax-1 is short for Axiom-1, the first crewed flight for Axiom Space, which has grand plans to eventually succeed the ISS and operate Axiom Station, its own commercial space station in orbit. 

Friday’s flight will see former NASA astronaut Michael Lopez-Allegria in command of a SpaceX Crew Dragon capsule that will carry a trio of paying crew members for a 10-day stay on the ISS. While the three soon-to-be astronauts all have careers as entrepreneurs and investors, they plan to conduct a broad set of experiments ranging from cancer research to self-assembling robots. 

“The collection of biological and technological tests during the Ax-1 mission represent a breadth of research that will inform everything from human health considerations to novel infrastructure and design for our future homes away from Earth, beginning with Axiom Station,” Christian Maender, Axiom Space director of in-space manufacturing and research, said in a statement.

SpaceX has sent astronauts from various national space agencies around the world to the ISS and also launched a private crew on an orbital trip for billionaire Jared Isaacman’s Inspiration4 mission, but this is the first time a Crew Dragon will carry paying passengers to the ISS. 

The Ax-1 crew consists of Lopez-Allegria, American real estate investor; pilot and adventurer Larry Connor; impact investor and former Israeli fighter pilot Eytan Stibbe; and Canadian entrepreneur and executive Mark Pathy. 

Axiom is hoping to send private and professional astronauts to the ISS as often as twice a year as it prepares to launch its own space station modules, currently set to attach to the ISS as soon as 2024. When the ISS is retired in 2031, the Axiom Station will separate to become its own free-flying private space station. 

After a few delays, liftoff is now set for Friday at 8:17 a.m. PT (11:17 a.m. ET) from NASA’s Kennedy Space Center. Axiom Space will begin livestreaming pre-launch activities starting at 4:55 a.m. PT and we’ll embed the livestream here once it’s available. 

After launch, the Crew Dragon is expected to dock with the ISS around 4:30 a.m. PT on Saturday.  We will embed the video stream for the mission here once it becomes available. 

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