By Steve Gorman

(Reuters] – The International Space Station (ISS), which is home to four private astronaut teams, will become more busy this week thanks to Axiom Space’s arrival of four additional crew members.

NASA, the company and others in the industry hail the launch as an important turning point in expanding commercial space ventures. This is collectively called the “low-Earth orbit economy”, or “LEO economy” by insiders.

Weather permitting Axiom’s team of four will launch Friday from NASA Kennedy Space Center in Florida at 5:01 a.m.

Initial plans called for the launch to take place on Wednesday. A spokesperson from Axiom said Monday that SpaceX will be delayed to allow it more time for pre-launch processing.

All going well, Michael Lopez-Alegria’s retired NASA astronaut would lead the group. The crew docks with ISS approximately 250 miles (404 km) higher than Earth in their Crew Dragon capsule.

Lopez-Alegria (63), is a Spanish-born mission commander. He also serves as Axiom’s vice president for business development. Larry Connor is the Ohio-based real estate and tech entrepreneur who will be joining him as mission pilot. Connor, who is now in his 70s, was not listed by the company.

Rounding out the Ax-1 team are investor-philanthropist and former Israeli fighter pilot Eytan Stibbe, 64, and Canadian businessman and philanthropist Mark Pathy, 52, both serving as mission specialists. Stibbe, who will become the second Israeli to be in space after Ilan RAMON, died along with six other NASA astronauts in the Columbia tragedy in 2003, is expected to succeed Pathy, a Canadian businessman and philanthropist.

It may seem that the Ax-1 crew has a lot to do with the many wealthy passengers who have been taking suborbital flights aboard Blue Origin and Virgin Galactic, which are offered by Richard Branson and Jeff Bezos. However, Axiom officials said that their mission was more important.

Lopez-Alegria stated that “We aren’t space tourists” during a recent press conference. He also said that Axiom has completed extensive astronaut training at both NASA and SpaceX, and will continue to perform meaningful biomedical research.

‘MANY BEGINNINGS’

Kam Ghaffarian (Axiom cofounder) said to Reuters that it was the start of many beginnings in commercializing low Earth orbit. We’re still in the beginning days of the internet and have not yet imagined the potentialities, the capabilities that space will offer.

Ax-1 will carry equipment and supplies to conduct 26 technology and science experiments before the team departs for orbit. They are expected to return to Earth within 10 days. Executives from the company said that these include studies on cancer, brain health and cardiac stem cells. They also plan to demonstrate how fluids suspended in microgravity can produce optics.

ISS launched into orbit in 1998. It has been continuously occupied under a U.S./Russian-led partnership, which includes Canada, Japan and eleven European countries.

Although the space station has been visited by civil visitors, Ax-1 will be the first commercial team of astronauts using ISS as an orbiting laboratory.

The seven crew members will share the weightless space with the ISS’s regular crew members, three U.S. astronauts and a German astronaut.

Axiom announced that it had signed a contract with SpaceX for three additional missions to orbit in the next two-years. NASA chose Axiom to develop and design a commercial space station wing. It currently covers an area the size of a football pitch. The company stated that the flight hardware for Axiom’s first module is in production.

Ghaffarian stated that plans call for the eventual detachment of Axiom module from the remainder of the outpost, when ISS will be ready to retire, in 2030. This would leave the Axiom station orbit, which is commercial-only, as a platform.

Other private operators may also place stations into orbit after the ISS is retired.

Kathy Lueders described Axiom on a recent telephone conference. She said, “This will be an important partnership moving forward.”