ISS The International Space Station as of Oct. 4, 2018
The International Space Station photographed by Expedition 56 crew members from a Soyuz spacecraft after undocking. NASA astronauts Andrew Feustel and Ricky Arnold and Roscosmos cosmonaut Oleg Artemyev executed a fly around of the orbiting laboratory to take pictures of the station before returning home after spending 197 days in space. The station will celebrate the 20th anniversary of the launch of the first element Zarya in November 2018.
NASA/Roscosmos
  • NASA and Axiom Space have agreed to fly the first private astronauts to the International Space Station.
  • Four astronauts would launch aboard a SpaceX Crew Dragon spaceship as early as January 2022.
  • NASA said Axiom astronauts will spend eight days at the ISS.
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NASA has agreed to let Axiom Space fly the first private astronauts to the International Space Station in a flight that will take place "no earlier than January 2022," NASA said in a press release on Monday.

The spaceflight will be called Axiom Mission 1 (Ax-1) and will launch from NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida, the press release said.

Axiom astronauts will then spend eight days in the International Space Station before returning to earth.

"One of our original goals with the Commercial Crew Program, and again with our Commercial Low-Earth Orbit Development Program, is that our providers have customers other than NASA to grow a commercial economy in low-Earth orbit," Kathy Lueders, associate administrator for human exploration and operations at NASA said in the release

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