NASA to open International Space Station to tourists from 2020

[Winston]

S. R. Hadden to be first customer.

JUNE 7, 2019
NASA to open International Space Station to tourists from 2020

https://phys.org/news/2019-06-nasa-international-space-station-tourists.html

NASA said Friday it will open up the International Space Station to business ventures including space tourism as it seeks to financially disengage from the orbiting research lab.

Price tag? Tens of millions of dollars for a round trip ticket and $35,000 a night.

"NASA is opening the International Space Station to commercial opportunities and marketing these opportunities as we've never done before," NASA chief financial officer Jeff DeWit said in an announcement made at the Nasdaq stock exchange in New York.

There will be up to two short private astronaut missions per year, said Robyn Gatens, deputy director of the ISS.

The missions will be for stays of up to 30 days. As many as a dozen private astronauts could visit the ISS per year, NASA said.

These travelers would be ferried to the orbiter exclusively by the two US companies currently developing transport vehicles for NASA: SpaceX, with its Crew Dragon capsule, and Boeing, which is building one called Starliner.

These companies would choose the clients—who will not have to be US citizens—and bill for the trip to the ISS, which will be the most expensive part of the adventure: around $58 million for a roundtrip ticket.

 

[Winston]

NASA will allow private astronauts on the ISS for $11,250-$22,500 a day
The space agency wants to create a sustainable economy in low Earth orbit.
6/7/2019

https://arstechnica.com/science/201...-astronauts-on-the-iss-for-11250-22500-a-day/

For starters, the space agency issued a new directive that allows commercial manufacturing and production to occur on the ISS, as well as marketing activities. It's not quite "anything goes," though—approved activities have to have a link to NASA's mission, stimulate the development of a LEO economy, or actually require a zero-G environment. NASA has published a price list for the ISS, and it's setting aside five percent of the station's annual resources (including astronaut time and cargo mass) for commercial use.

Be prepared to pay to reach LEO. The cheapest cargo option is $3,000/kg to get it there, then an additional $3,000/kg to dispose of it in the trash. If you want it back again, that'll be a $6,000/kg return fee, although round trip prices per kg are more expensive if you need power or life support on the way home.

In addition to manufacturing and production, NASA set pricing for space tourists—it’s calling them private astronaut missions—aboard the ISS, too. Regenerative life support and toilet access? That's a snip at $11,250 per crew day. The more expensive "Crew Supplies" option—$22,500—sounds more hospitable, including as it does "food, air, crew provisions, supplies, medical kit, [and] exercise equipment." NASA says it will support up to two short-duration private missions to the ISS each year, and those missions will travel on a US launch vehicle developed under the Commercial Crew program.