SpaceX successfully Places All-Civilian Crew On ISS

SpaceX and Axiom Space have successfully placed a Dragon capsule carrying the first completely private crew of astronauts to the ISS. The group consisted of three wealthy business people and one retired NASA astronaut. The capsule docked with the ISS about 21 hours after launching from Kennedy Space Center last Friday.

The capsule docked at the ISS at 8:41 AM Eastern time. One minor glitch with the docking process required the Crew Dragon capsule to postpone docking for about 45 minutes. The delay was due to an issue with a video feed used to monitor the capsule as it attached the ISS.

The private astronauts will spend eight days in orbit aboard the ISS. The mission is led by former NASA astronaut Michael Lopez-Algria who is now 63 years old and is the Axiom Space inc. Vice President for business development.

While the former NASA astronaut went to the ISS for work, the three businessmen are reported to have paid $55 million apiece to go into space. Once the docking was complete, the four new ISS crew members were welcomed by the entire existing crew of the space station.