NASA to allow private citizens to fly to the International Space Station
NASA plans to allow private citizens to fly to the International Space Station and wants to open the orbiting laboratory to more commercial interests, including filming advertisements, to help fund its ambitious plan to return astronauts to the moon by 2024, the agency announced Friday.
The announcement is a significant change for the agency, which has had a long-standing prohibition against allowing tourists on the station, costing taxpayers about $100 billion over its life span. Russia, however, has allowed several private astronauts on the station.
Under the NASA plan, as many as two private citizens per year could fly to the station and stay for up to 30 days with the first mission coming as early as next year.
Jeff DeWit, NASA’s chief financial officer, estimated the cost per trip would be about $50 million a seat. But the cost and arrangements would be left to SpaceX and Boeing, the two companies NASA has hired to fly crews to the station. They would keep that money and also have to make sure that private astronauts “meet NASA’s medical standards and the training and certification procedures” for crew members.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/technology/2019/06/07/nasa-allow-private-citizens-fly-international-space-station/?utm_term=.fdc577ddf011&wpisrc=al_news__alert-economy--alert-national&wpmk=1
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