Want
to Take a 10-Day Trip to the Space Station? It'll Cost You $55 Million
You can now sign up for a 10-day mission aboard the International Space Station
(ISS) - if you've got $55 million to spare.
That's the price just announced by Axiom Space, a Houston-based company that's
organizing expeditions to the ISS and working to build the first commercial
space station. The $55 million covers the orbital stay, transportation to and
from the ISS, and a 15-week astronaut-training program.
Axiom Space aims to launch its first customers in 2020, company representatives
said. [6 Private Deep-Space Habitats Paving the Way to Mars]
"It is an honor to continue the work that NASA and its partners have
begun, to bring awareness to the profound benefits of human space exploration
and to involve more countries and private citizens in these endeavors,"
Axiom Space CEO and President Michael Suffredini, who managed NASA's ISS
program for a decade, said in a statement.
Artist's illustration of
Axiom commercial modules attached to the International Space Station.
Credit: Axiom Space
Axiom Space is also developing its own station, the modules of which will
launch toward, and link up with, the ISS. The Axiom station will be ready to
accommodate paying passengers by 2022 if all goes according to plan, company
representatives have said.
The commercial outpost will still be attached to the ISS at that point. When
the huge, $100 billion orbital outpost is ready to be deorbited, the Axiom
station will detach and begin flying freely. (Exactly when this will happen is
unclear; the ISS is currently funded through 2024, but it's possible that
operations could be extended beyond that date.)
The commercial station's interiors are being designed in partnership with
French architect Philippe Starck, so they'll be quite a bit different from the
utilitarian spaces of the ISS.
"This is a dream project for a creator like me with a genuine fascination
for aviation and space exploration," Starck said in the same statement.
"The greatest human intelligence in the world focuses on space research.
My vision for the habitation module on Axiom Station is to create a comfortable
egg that is inviting, with soft walls and a design perfectly in harmony with
the values and movements of the human body in zero gravity."
Artist's illustration of
Axiom Space's commercial outpost flying independently in Earth orbit.
Credit: Axiom Space
Tourists have visited the ISS before. Seven folks took a total of eight trips
to the orbiting lab from 2001 through 2009, paying an estimated $20 million to
$40 million each time.
And Axiom Space isn't the only company working to develop a commercial space
station. For example, in April, a startup called Orion Span announced that it
aims to have a "luxury space hotel" operating in Earth orbit by 2022.
Bigelow Aerospace, a company that makes expandable space habitats, has also
expressed a desire to set up outposts in Earth orbit, as well as in other
locales, such as the surface of the moon.
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