Washington (AFP) – The first fully private mission to the International Space Station is set to blast off Friday with a four-member crew from startup company Axiom Space. The partnership has been hailed by NASA, which sees it as a key step in its goal to commercialize the region of space known as “low Earth orbit,” leaving the agency to focus on more ambitious endeavors deeper into the cosmos. Takeoff is set for 11:17 am (1517 GMT) from the Kennedy Space Center in Florida on a SpaceX rocket. Commanding the Axiom-1 mission will be former NASA astronaut Michael Lopez-Alegria, a dual citizen of t…