NASA says it will open up the International Space Station to tourists and business ventures in a move to financial disengage from the orbiting research lab.
Photo Credit from NASA
“NASA is opening the International Space Station to commercial opportunities and marketing these opportunities as we’ve never done before,” says NASA chief financial officer Jeff DeWit.
Just prepare an estimated amount of $58 million for a round-trip ticket because the accommodation will cost about $35,000 per night, for trips of up to 30 days long.
That is the average rate the companies will bill NASA for taking the space adventurers up to the ISS.
These travelers would be ferried to the orbiter exclusively by the two companies currently developing transport vehicles for NASA: SpaceX, with its Crew Dragon capsule, and Boeing, which is building one called Starliner.
The space station does not belong to NASA. It was built along with Russia starting in 1998, and other countries participate in the mission and send up astronauts. The US pays for and controls most of the modules that make up the orbiter, though.
The new space tourists to the ISS will not be the first: US businessman Dennis Tito had that honor in 2001. He paid Russia around $20 million for the trip.
Others followed in his footsteps, the last being Cirque du Soleil founder Guy Laliberte in 2009.
Since 2011, Russian Soyuz rockets have been the only way to get to the space station. And they have transported only space agency astronauts, in addition to Russian cosmonauts.
There are usually three to six crew members on the ISS at any given time. Right now it is home to three Americans, two Russians and a Canadian.
No comments:
Post a Comment