Posted on 06/07/2019 2:37:57 PM PDT by ETL
NASA plans to allow tourists to visit the International Space Station from 2020 – at an estimated cost of more than $50 million per trip.
It means that private companies will be able to take "private astronauts" to the ISS for up to 30 days.
"The agency can accommodate up to two short-duration private astronaut missions per year to the International Space Station," Nasa explained.
"These missions will be privately funded, dedicated commercial spaceflights."
Transport will be provided by both Boeing and Elon Musk's SpaceX, who are currently developing capsules that can carry humans to the ISS.
It's expected that a trip will likely cost around $50 million per astronaut, according to early estimates – but could easily rise well above that figure.
The spaceflight to the ISS will account for a large chunk of the cost.
NASA typically pays around $75 million for seats aboard a Soyuz spacecraft destined for the ISS, and even paid $82 million per seat in 2015.
(Excerpt) Read more at foxnews.com ...
Its all fun and games until little johnny starts pushing buttons and unscrewing fixures. or leaves the water running. this is a joke right?
$50 million per trip. If i had that much I think I could think of better and funner things to do with that money.
"What do I think of the new NASA administrator?
He's OK, I guess.
A little stupid on the "global warming" nonsense, though."
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In a NASA town hall yesterday (May 17), NASA's new administrator, Jim Bridenstine, said that he knows Earth's climate is changing, and that humans contribute to it "in a major way," also supporting NASA's research into that important area. The statement is significant because Bridenstine has expressed doubt about human-caused climate change in the past, causing some to question his suitability to lead a fact-focused NASA.
In 2013, as an Oklahoma congressman, Bridenstine claimed there was no current trend toward global warming. More recently, such as in his NASA administrator confirmation hearings last November, he has acknowledged that human activity contributes to climate change. But he had stopped short of saying that humans are the phenomenon's primary cause.
At the NASA employee town hall, Bridenstine described how his thinking had "evolved" on the topic and laid out his current beliefs.
"I don't deny the consensus that the climate is changing; in fact, I fully believe and know that the climate is changing," he said. "I also know that we, human beings, are contributing to it in a major way. Carbon dioxide is a greenhouse gas. We're putting it into the atmosphere in volumes that we haven't seen, and that greenhouse gas is warming the planet.
"That is absolutely happening, and we are responsible for it," he added. "NASA is the one agency on the face of the planet that has the most credibility to do the science necessary so that we can understand it better than ever before."
(Excerpt) Read more at foxnews.com ...
You got me interested so I had a look at a couple of YouTube “walkthroughs”. Maybe they are called “floathroughs”.
Very informative. Very surprising how far they have come with this project. It is huge and complex. Amazing accomplishment.
If you’re really serious about the program, and perhaps interested in signing up for a trip, you could also start up a GoFundMe account. :)
But you’d have to come up with a reeeeally good story as to why you need to go. :)
You have to stay over a Saturday and if you change your return trip there is a 25% upcharge.
When I was in the Air Force and worked on aircraft we actually had fools who would do that.
One on the left looks like Nancy Pelosi.
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