SpaceX announces deal to send tourists to the International Space Station
Source: ABC
SpaceX announced a new partnership to send the first fully private flight with tourists and a tour guide to the International Space Station as early as next year. The Elon Musk-spearheaded private space company signed a contract with Axiom Space to transport a space tour guide trained by Axiom and three private astronauts to and from the ISS on the Crew Dragon spacecraft.
"Since 2012, SpaceX has been delivering cargo to the International Space Station in partnership with NASA and later this year, we will fly NASA astronauts for the first time," SpaceX president and COO Gwynne Shotwell said in a statement Thursday.
"Now, thanks to Axiom and their support from NASA, privately crewed missions will have unprecedented access to the space station, furthering the commercialization of space and helping usher in a new era of human exploration," Shotwell added.
The mission is set to take place as soon as the second half of 2021. The space tourists will be able to live aboard the ISS for eight days and view Earth from above.
Read more: https://abcnews.go.com/Business/spacex-announces-deal-send-tourists-international-space-station/story?id=69433693
iluvtennis
(19,876 posts)left-of-center2012
(34,195 posts)Talitha
(6,618 posts)PSPS
(13,616 posts)Miguelito Loveless
(4,474 posts)paleotn
(17,989 posts)Just what we need. Bumbling tourist billionaires messing with the buttons and knobs on the ISS. Our tax dollars put the ISS in orbit to do science and space exploration, not to become an a play thing for birth lottery winners.
I'm sure the real astronauts, you know, those men and women who have studied for years and years and years, can hardly wait to have a bunch of bumbling idiots floating around in the space station.
What could go wrong?
truthisfreedom
(23,157 posts)RandiFan1290
(6,245 posts)Massacure
(7,526 posts)Scott Manley doesn't give the exact figure, but other articles have mentioned that NASA is charging $35,000 per person per day. So NASA will get $1.1 million for that 8 day stay.
FailureToCommunicate
(14,023 posts)Pass.
PoliticAverse
(26,366 posts)Unca Jim
(556 posts)Dem2theMax
(9,654 posts)Send the GOP up. And then, instead of three years, let's make it 30 or 40 years. Problem solved!
captain jack
(316 posts)"Fuck Martha Stewart. Martha's polishing the brass on the Titanic. It's all going down, man. So fuck off with your sofa units and Strinne green stripe patterns, [and your fucking private space flights!]