How and when to watch the first all-private mission to the International Space Station

The launch of the first all commercial mission to the International Space Station, Axiom 1, will be carried live on multiple websites on Friday

The Axiom-1 mission on the launch pad at Kennedy Space Center in Florida (Nasa)

Axiom-1, the first all-private mission to the International Space Station, is set for launch Friday morning, and you can watch live through multiple live streaming options.

Axiom-1 is scheduled to launch at 11.17am ET time on Friday, 8 April, from launchpad 39A at Nasa’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida.

A livestream of the launch will begin around 7.55am ET on Friday on both the SpaceX website and the Axiom Space website. Viewers can also tune in on the Nasa Live website for a different live stream that will begin around 10am.

The four crew members will head to the ISS in a SpaceX Crew Dragon spacecraft, lofted into orbit aboard atop a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket, the same launch vehicle-spacecraft combination that has carried Nasa astronauts to the ISS since 2020.

But unlike Nasa astronauts, the Axiom-1 crew are an entirely private crew, and with the exception of mission commander Michael López-Alegría, a former Nasa astronaut — and former vice president of Axiom — some have no spaceflight experience: Investment banker Mark Pathy, education nonprofit executive Larry Connor, and Israeli Air Force veteran and businessman Eytan Stibbe paid $55m each for the opportunity to fly to the ISS.

The four Axiom crew plan to spend eight days aboard the ISS conducting several scientific experiments, including growing model tumors for cancer research, testing self-assembling robots, and testing a new, degradable laundry detergent.

But the larger purpose behind the Axiom-1 mission is putting a crew in place to support Axiom’s larger ambitions of building a fully commercial space station to one day serve as a replacement for the ISS.

In February 2020, Nasa chose Axiom Space to develop the first Commercial Destination module to expand the ISS. The company has since been developing the module intending to add more units over time until the Axiom has sufficient infrastructure to detach from the ISS and fly as a stand alone commercial space station. Commercial astronauts like those on Axiom-1 could play an important role in the eventual build out of such a commercial space station.

Nasa has specifically asked industry to develop commercial space stations, the space agency citing its intention to get out of the space station business once the ISS is retired at the end of the decade, instead focusing on deep space exploration on the Moon and Mars, and Science missions throughout the Solar System.