SpaceX
SpaceX is offering tickets for space tourists to fly aboard the same type of spacecraft that will bring NASA astronauts to the International Space Station (ISS). Through a partnership with the space tourism firm Space Adventures, four tickets are on sale to fly far above the ISS aboard a Crew Dragon spacecraft.
Space Adventures isn’t new to the space tourism game: between 2001 and 2009, it sent seven private individuals to the International Space Station aboard the Russian Soyuz spacecraft, charging tens of millions of dollars per flight. Since then, it has continued to sell tickets to space to wealthy individuals such as Google co-founder Sergey Brin, but has not flown any other missions.
Now, the firm is poised to begin its flights again. SpaceX’s Crew Dragon spacecraft was developed to bring NASA astronauts to the ISS, and already completed a flight to the ISS without crew in March. Its first flight with crew is planned for this year.
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The flight with tourists aboard is slated to take place after NASA’s first flight, in late 2021 or 2022, but it will take a different trajectory. The mission will orbit Earth for up to five days at an altitude two to three times higher than the ISS, tweeted Space Adventures CEO Eric Anderson.
“The price of the mission will not be disclosed, but in the range as other orbital spaceflight opportunities,” says Space Adventures representative Stacey Tearne. Prices for other Space Adventures flights have ranged from around $20 million for a trip to the ISS to $150 million for planned flights around the moon.
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