Earlier this year Richard Branson announced his space venture, Virgin Galactic, is aiming to fly people into space in 2020. Not to be outdone, NASA has joined the fray and will be offering visits to the International Space Station for the super low price of just AU$50,000 (US$35,000) per night.
If it sounds a little too good to be true for a few nights spent in space, you’d be correct. It’s looking as if NASA plans to get private astronauts to and from the space station via Elon Musk’s SpaceX Crew ‘Dragon’ capsule, which the BBC is reporting will cost around AU$83 million per person.
.@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
“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. Put simply, NASA needs to make bank to keep funding space exploration and there’s no better way to do this than targeting the tourism market.
There will only be two space missions a year with guests able to stay for a maximum of 30 days. The $50k per night price tag will cover your stay at the station, food, water and use of the life support system, while the Wi-Fi will set you back a $50 a gigabyte.
For more information regarding pricing and eligibility head to nasa.gov
