Watch Live: SpaceX And NASA Carry Out First Private Launch To ISS

In what is being billed as America’s first private space flight into orbit and the first example of space tourism involving a collaboration between NASA, a private company and the ISS, three men and a retired NASA astronaut will take off from the Kennedy Space Center in Florida at 1117ET on Friday on a journey into Earth’s orbit.

The mission, billed as Axiom-1 or Ax-1, will involve spending 10 days in orbit, including eight days aboard the ISS. The astronauts will make the trip in a SpaceX Crew Dragon, the same capsule used by NASA’s astronauts, atop a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket.

In the event of a weather-related delay, the launch will be delayed until Saturday, or possibly Sunday. Axiom Space (which booked the flight and the crew), SpaceX and NASA will all broadcast coverage of the launch, which can be watched live below:

Last year was a landmark year for space tourism, however, trips into orbit are much more ambitious than the suborbital trips that carried Jeff Bezos, Richard Branson and William Shatner. Rockets must accelerate at a pace of 17,500 mph to successfully break free of earth’s gravity and carry their passengers into orbit.