[ti:First Private Astronaut Crew Launches to Space Station] [by:www.51voa.com] [00:00.00]更多听力请访问51VOA.COM [00:00.04]An astronaut crew of private citizens [00:03.92]has launched to the International Space Station (ISS). [00:08.08]The launch happened Friday morning [00:11.32]from Florida's Kennedy Space Center. [00:14.64]The flight is the first to be organized and operated [00:19.80]by a private company [00:21.60]involving a completely commercial astronaut crew. [00:26.40]The four-member team will travel to the ISS [00:31.40]inside a Crew Dragon Endeavor spacecraft [00:36.00]built by American company SpaceX. [00:39.84]The spacecraft will be carried into space [00:43.92]by a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket. [00:47.52]It is expected to arrive at the ISS [00:51.80]about 28 hours after the launch. [00:55.88]The crew members are from the private company [00:59.72]Axiom Space, based in Houston, Texas. [01:04.04]The group is led by retired NASA astronaut Michael Lopez-Alegria. [01:11.68]The mission is called Ax-1. [01:15.00]The 63-year-old Lopez-Alegria [01:18.88]is described as the mission commander. [01:22.48]He is Axiom's vice president of business development. [01:27.92]Lopez-Alegria will be joined by the mission pilot, Larry Conner, [01:34.40]a businessman and private pilot from Ohio. [01:38.64]Conner is in his 70s, but the company did not provide his exact age. [01:46.04]The other members of the crew [01:48.40]are 64-year-old Israeli fighter pilot Eytan Stibbe [01:54.24]and 52-year-old Mark Pathy, a Canadian businessman. [01:59.88]Stibbe and Pathy will serve as mission specialists. [02:05.44]The private crew is expected to spend eight days [02:10.20]aboard the orbiting ISS. [02:13.56]NASA said it will cooperate with Axiom mission officials [02:19.52]to plan joint activities involving the Axiom team [02:24.80]and regular ISS crew members. [02:29.04]Currently, there are three American astronauts aboard the ISS, [02:34.68]along with a German astronaut and three Russian cosmonauts. [02:40.40]The launch is being praised by Axiom, NASA [02:45.48]and industry officials as a turning point [02:49.44]in the latest expansion of commercial space activities. [02:54.56]Such activities have become known in the industry [02:59.36]as the low-Earth orbit economy, or the "LEO economy." [03:05.56]In 2020, SpaceX became the first private company [03:11.24]to launch astronauts into Earth's orbit. [03:15.28]That mission sent two astronauts to the ISS. [03:20.44]SpaceX has since completed several similar flights. [03:26.16]The latest mission's crew might seem similar [03:30.76]to private space tourists who recently took space rides [03:35.92]that did not reach orbit. [03:38.44]Those services are offered by private companies [03:43.08]Blue Origin and Virgin Galactic. [03:47.84]The trips aim to fly private citizens to the edge of space [03:53.52]and permit them to experience weightlessness and observe Earth. [04:00.16]But Axiom executives said their mission is very different. [04:06.12]"We are not space tourists," [04:09.08]Lopez-Alegria told a recent news conference. [04:13.40]He added that the Axiom team had completed [04:17.60]intense astronaut training with both NASA and SpaceX. [04:24.32]The Ax-1 team will be carrying equipment and supplies [04:30.32]for 26 science and technology experiments. [04:35.52]They include research in areas including brain [04:41.32]and heart health, cancer and aging. [04:44.96]In the past, the ISS has accepted some visits by private citizens. [04:52.52]But the current mission will mark the first all-commercial team of astronauts [04:59.48]sent to use the station for its purpose as an orbiting laboratory. [05:05.64]Axiom's co-founder and executive chairman, Kam Ghaffarian, [05:11.56]told Reuters he sees the launch as "the beginning [05:16.32]of many beginnings for commercializing low-Earth orbit." [05:22.00]He added: "We're like in the early days of the internet, [05:27.04]and we haven't even imagined all the possibilities, [05:31.76]all the capabilities, that we're going to be providing in space." [05:37.76]I'm Bryan Lynn. 更多听力请访问51VOA.COM