NASA is hoping to host more amateur astronauts at the International Space Station, putting them up for as much as two weeks at a time.
Space tourism is taking off, and NASA wants to continue cashing in on the fun. In January next year, Axiom Space's Ax-1 mission is due to fly a professional astronaut and passengers to the orbiting station for an eight-day stay using a SpaceX rocket and Crew Dragon capsule. And Blue Origin just auctioned off a seat into space next month for $28m.
“This year is truly a renaissance for human spaceflight both as we fly NASA and international partner astronauts on US commercial crew spacecraft to the International Space Station,” said NASA’s director of commercial spaceflight development Phil McAlister, referring to SpaceX sending astronauts to the station, "and also as we see the expansion of private astronaut missions.
“As more people fly to space and do more things during their spaceflights, it attracts even more people to do more activities in low-Earth orbit, and reflects the growing market we envisioned when we began the Commercial Crew Program ten years ago.”
By people, he means, billionaires, mainly.
Anyhoo, NASA hopes to partner with third-party businesses to launch two more “private astronaut” missions to the ISS. The first launch will happen no sooner than ..
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