As off-the-planet tourism takes off, Canadian financier Mark Pathy is among the first all-private astronaut team to fly to the International Space Station on Friday.
Texas space infrastructure company Axiom Space is sending a four-person crew on a commercial launch led by retired NASA astronaut Michael Lopez-Alegria. The launch took place at around 11:30 a.m. ET on Friday.
Pathy, 52, of Montreal, and his fellow crew members lifted off from NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida on a clear day. Pathy, chairman and CEO of investment firm Mavrik Corp., is one of Axiom’s first customers. Also on board are businessman and former Israeli fighter pilot Eytan Stibbe.
Rounding out the team is Larry Connor, a real estate and technology entrepreneur and aerobatics aviator from Ohio.
They are set to ride atop a Falcon 9 rocket. It is furnished and flown by Elon Musk’s commercial space launch venture SpaceX.
Axiom, Nasa and other companies have hailed the flight as a turning point in the latest expansion of commercial space ventures.
— with files from Reuters and The Associated Press
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