This may be a watershed in the normalization of space travel.
Editor’s note: This article comes from “ Future Car Daily ” (WeChat public account ID: auto-time), author: Terence Lee Nan.
Author | Li Zinan
Edit | Xu Yang
SpaceX, a Musk company, plans to send three tourists to the International Space Station for a 10-day space trip next year.
According to foreign media reports, SpaceX and a startup named Axiom Space signed a contract on Thursday, and the two parties plan to launch a space tourism program in the second half of 2021. Axiom Space is the first supplier of commercial residential module bays to the International Space Station. Founded in 2016, the company’s modules will be used in future commercial space missions to support various experiments and technology development. Space travelers can use the SpaceX Dragon Crew, or Boeing’s Starliner to get into space.
As planned, SpaceX’s Crew Dragon will send three space tourists to the International Space Station and stay there for 8 days to spend time with astronauts working on the space station. Tickets for this space trip are about $ 55 million, and one seat has been booked.
This is the second space tourism project announced by SpaceX this year. In February this year, SpaceX signed a contract with a space tourism company called Space Adventures. The two parties plan to launch a space tourism program from the end of 2021 to the beginning of 2022.
In addition, SpaceX has a lot of preparations to do before sending tourists to space. According to CNBC, SpaceX’s first manned flight is tentatively scheduled for May 7. However, this is only a preliminary set date. Due to factors such as weather, the actual mission date may be advanced or delayed.
NASA has announced earlier that two astronauts, namely Robert Behnken, Douglas Hurley will participate in the test flight of the SpaceX Dragon spacecraft; two astronauts, Victor Glover, and Michael Hopkins will participate in the first flight of the Dragon spacecraft. . Only after passing these tests and ensuring safety can the manned spacecraft be opened to ordinary tourists.
Axiom, a startup that partnered with SpaceX, said that after this flight, more trips to the International Space Station may occur. “This historic flight, Will become a watershed towards the normalization of space travel. “The company’s chief executive, Michael Suffredini, said in a statement.
