Thinking of taking a holiday to space? Space travel for individuals will start happening very soon. SpaceX announced plans to send three tourists to the International Space Station aboard its Crew Dragon spacecraft. The mission will be the first private trip to space in more than a decade.
The rocket company, founded by billionaire tech entrepreneur, Elon Musk, signed a deal with startup Axiom Space to send a professionally trained commander along with private astronauts to spend eight days at the ISS. The mission is set to launch by the end of 2021. The companies, in a joint statement called this the "first-ever fully private human spaceflight mission" to the ISS.
It is not yet clear how much each ticket will cost. But with the cost of launching a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket at around $60 million (€53.4 million), plus the cost of building a fresh Dragon capsule, estimated to be over $100 million, the tourists will likely be paying tens of millions for their trip.
SpaceX's Crew Dragon has previously launched NASA satellites into space and is due to launch its first crewed mission this year. SpaceX President, Gwynne Shotwell said that 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.
This was the second space tourism-related deal announced by SpaceX in the past month. In February, SpaceX signed a deal with Space Adventures to send four tourists deeper into the orbit than any other private astronaut.
