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SpaceX's first tourist trip is already dated 0:57
New York (CNN) - Astronauts from the International Space Station may receive some visitors next year.
SpaceX announced that it signed an agreement with the startup Axiom Space, which plans to take tourists, private investigators, astronauts from foreign countries and other people out of NASA's astronaut corps to the International Space Station.
The flight will accommodate three passengers in the SpaceX Crew Dragon spacecraft, a fully autonomous capsule shaped like a chewing gum that is about 4 meters wide, along with a trained flight commander.
Axiom's first mission could be launched as soon as the second half of 2021, according to a joint press release.
Crew Dragon will connect to the space station and allow passengers to spend at least eight days there before returning to Earth.
"This will be just the first of many missions to the International Space Station to be manned and fully managed by Axiom Space, the first for a commercial entity," said Axiom executive director Michael Suffredini, who served as program manager for NASA's International Space Station from 2005 to 2015, in a statement. "The acquisition of transport marks significant progress towards that goal."
Axiom refused to share price information, but tourist missions prior to the International Space Station have cost passengers tens of millions of dollars.
The Axiom agreement marks the second announcement related to space tourism for SpaceX in a month. The company, led by billionaire Elon Musk, said in February that it will work with a company called Space Adventures to organize a trip that orbits the Earth for a handful of travelers.
Space Adventures previously organized eight trips to the International Space Station for ultra-rich travelers between 2001 and 2009, but those missions were based on Russia's Soyuz spacecraft.
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The Axiom tourism mission could mark the first time in history that an American spacecraft is used to take tourists to the International Space Station.
Before any of that can happen, however, SpaceX's Crew Dragon must be certified for human spaceflight and demonstrate that it can fulfill its purpose: to keep the International Space Station fully staffed with professionally trained astronauts.
NASA asked the private sector to design spacecraft capable of replacing the Space Shuttle Program after its retirement in 2011. The space agency awarded SpaceX $ 2.6 billion for the task. Boeing reached a similar agreement valued at 4.2 billion dollars to develop its Starliner spacecraft.
Both spaceships are years late. And since 2011, NASA has relied on the Russian-made Soyuz spacecraft to take American astronauts to the space station.
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But after completing his last major test milestone in January, Crew Dragon now seems on track to fly his first manned mission for spring.
NASA has said from the beginning that, although it paid for the development of the spacecraft, Boeing and SpaceX will continue to own and operate their vehicles and will be allowed to use them for other types of missions, including space tourism.
The International Space Station, which is essentially a giant orbit laboratory, has hosted a rotating team of US astronauts. UU. and dozens of other countries during the last two decades. NASA has talked extensively about encouraging more commercial activity at the space station, which orbits about 320 km above the ground.
Last year, the space agency said it would allow up to two trips to the International Space Station per year for non-governmental astronauts.
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A NASA spokesman said Axiom's tourism plan is in line with its "broad strategy to facilitate the commercialization" of space. However, the agency's priority is to prepare Crew Dragon to fly its own astronauts, NASA spokesman said via email.
It should be noted that plans to take wealthy adventure seekers into space are frequently altered or abandoned.
Last year, for example, a company called Bigelow Aerospace said it would organize trips to the International Space Station using SpaceX's Crew Dragon. The company planned to sell tickets for about $ 52 million per piece, but those plans were canceled later.
And, in 2017, SpaceX talked about sending tourists on a flight around the Moon aboard a Crew Dragon capsule. The company abandoned those plans to focus on the design of a gigantic spacecraft and a rocket system called Starship, which is currently in the early stages of development.
The space industry could soon move towards a tourism revolution if SpaceX and others fulfill their plans.
Two US-based companies, Virgin Galactic and Blue Origin, the Jeff Bezos space company, are developing vehicles for suborbital space tourism separately. They will offer short flights at approximately 100 km above the Earth's surface for panoramic views and a few minutes of weightlessness.
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