Launch of first civilian commercial crew to space station slips to Friday

The launch of a SpaceX Crew Dragon capsule featuring the first all-civilian crew on a commercial, non-governmental flight to the International Space Station slides from Wednesday to at least Friday, the mission’s sponsor announced Sunday. No reason for the slip was given.

Houston-based Axiom Space said launch of pad 39A at the Kennedy Space Center is now aimed at no earlier than 11:17 a.m. ET Friday, April 8, setting up a docking at the space station Saturday morning at 7:30 p.m.

Mission Commander Michael Lopez-Alegria, a vice president of Axiom and former NASA astronaut, and three wealthy investors / entrepreneurs – Larry Connor, Canadian Mark Pathy and Israeli Eytan Stibbe, a former F-16 fighter ace – are planning about nine days spent on board the laboratory conducting privately funded research before releasing and returning to Earth.

The flight is the first NASA-sanctioned “private astronaut mission” to the space station, as the agency seeks to expand commercial investment in research and development of low-Earth orbit.

The AX-1 crew during training (left to right): Larry Connor, Commander Michael Lopez-Alegria, Mark Pathy and Eytan Stibbe.

Axiom Space / SpaceX

William Harwood

Bill Harwood has covered the U.S. space program since 1984, first as Cape Canaveral bureau chief for United Press International and now as a consultant for CBS News. He completed 129 space shuttle missions, each interplanetary flight since Voyager 2’s past Neptune and numerous commercial and military launches. Based at the Kennedy Space Center in Florida, Harwood is a dedicated amateur astronomer and co-author of “Comm Check: The Final Flight of Shuttle Columbia.”