- Tourists will soon be able to visit the International Space Station thanks to NASA in 2020
- It will be a twice-a-year event so not everyone will be able to go
- NASA will allow “private” astronauts to hang out for 30 days
- NASA CFO Jeff DeWit said in announcing the new program that it’s all about “opening the International Space Station to commercial opportunities
Do you have a spare US $35,000 lying around? Well, if you do then this is your chance to go to space with NASA.
Nasawill allow tourists to visit the International Space Station from 2020, priced at $35,000 per night. This is part of NASA’s vision to make the space agency more viable by getting in the additional dollars from space enthusiasts and “private” astronauts and opening the organisation up to commercial opportunities.
Patrons who do decide to fork up $35,000 a night will be able to hang around the ISS for 30 days. Yeah, you read that right.
Now this is not a new concept. Russia has sent tourists to space before. US multi-millionaire Dennis Tito was the world’s first-ever space tourist in 2001.
.@Space_Station is open for commercial business! Watch @Astro_Christina talk about the steps we're taking to make our orbiting laboratory accessible to all Americans. pic.twitter.com/xLp2CpMC2x
— NASA (@NASA) June 7, 2019
According to the BBC, he paid $20m for his eight days in space. Tito started his space journey on 28 April 2001, with the help of the Russians after NASA refused to send him on the grounds that he was not a trained astronaut.
This new initiative also comes on the heels of US President Trump’s budget request in 2018 that called on ending direct funding for the ISS by 2025.
NASA’s additional reasoning is that this new tourism push will help fund its 2024 trip to the moon, its first in the 70s where they want to take the first female astronaut to Earth’s favourite planet.
To think, a woman tourist could in theory be the first female astronaut on the surface of the moon. If anyone has a few millions lying around to send this author up to space it would be much apreciated.
