Aerospace company SpaceX launched three opulent entrepreneurs and their astronaut escort to the International Space Station (ISS) on Friday for over a week’s stay as NASA collaborates with Russia in hosting guests at the celestial destination.

Accompanying the passengers is Michael Lopez-Alegria, a former NASA astronaut who plans to avoid conversing about the Russia-Ukraine conflict at the space station.

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“I honestly think that it won’t be awkward. I mean maybe a tiny bit,” he said while hoping that the “spirit of collaboration will shine through.”

Along with NASA, Axiom Space, a privately funded space infrastructure developer, has organised the space station visit for its three passengers-  Larry Connor who runs the Connor Group, Mark Pathy, the CEO and founder of Mavrik Corp and Eytan Stibbe, a former fighter pilot from Israel. 

Right before being blasted off into space, Stibbe performed a little dance routine as he arrived at the rocket at Kennedy Space Center.

According to Lopez-Alegria, both NASA and SpaceX have been brutally honest about the risks involving a spaceflight. Fifteen years ago, the veteran astronaut spent seven months at the station orbiting in space.

“There’s no fuzz, I think, on what the dangers are or what the bad days could look like,” Lopez-Alegria told AP right before the launch.

Each of the three businessmen will conduct experiments during their stay, which is part of the reason why they refuse to be labeled as space tourists. 

“They’re not up there to paste their nose on the window,” said  Michael Suffredini, Axiom’s co-founder and president and a former NASA space station program manager.

The celestial trip comes after Jeff Bezos’ rocket firm Blue Origin took customers on a 10-minute ride to the edge of space. With the expansion of space commercialization, California-based spaceflight company Virgin Galactic is expected to begin rocketship flights for customers later this year.