SpaceX, Axiom Space Partner For Private Space Travel

Space Travel: What’s The Cost

The cost of launching a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket is roughly $60 million. But SpaceX is going to build a new capsule for the private space trip, which could cost more than $100 million. In other words, a ticket for a private space trip is going to cost you tens of millions of dollars.

Space Travel: Not The First Time

This wouldn't be the first-time tourists are heading out for space travel. Previously, eight space tourists had visited ISS on the Russian Soyuz rocket, in a partnership with a company called Space Adventures. Dennis Tito was the first space tourist in 2001 to spend eight hours on ISS. He had paid $20 million. The last tourist was Guy Laliberte, the founder of Cirque du Soleil in 2009.

The private space flight "will represent a watershed moment in the march toward universal and routine access to space," said Axiom Space CEO Michael Suffredini; but didn't give us a price for the new space travel.

Other Private Space Travel

Today, SpaceX isn't the only company chalking plans for private space travel. Jeff Bezos' Blue Origin and Richard Branson's Virgin Galactic are also drafting plans to take tourists to space.

Both Blue Origin and Virgin Galactic are developing spaceships to take tourists just beyond the border of space, roughly 80-100 km from the Earth. Pricing for space travels with the Virgin Galactic has already been announced and is going to cost $250,000 when the sale began in the late 2000s.

SpaceX Space Travel

On the other hand, SpaceX is offering something more. In a partnership with Space Adventures, the space agency is sending four tourists deeper into orbit, a place where private tourists haven't been before. Presently, the project is scheduled to launch in late 2021, but it could liftoff in 2022.

The SpaceX, Axiom Space partnership will be using the reusable Falcon 9 rocket powered by the Crew Dragon capsule that the company uses to launch satellites for NASA and send astronauts to ISS.