The emergence of a full-fledged commercial space tourism. SpaceX’s Crew Dragon to take two tourists to ISS next year

Axiom Space has revealed the details of the upcoming AX-1 mission, in which two tourists will travel to the ISS. In fact, we are talking about the resumption of tourist flights to the station, and more globally, about the start of space tourism as a full-fledged industry. Previously, there were already tourist flights to the ISS, but there were few of them, and then we were not talking about completely private companies.

So, the mission is now scheduled for early next year, although it was originally supposed to take place at the end of this year. Axiom Space signed a contract with SpaceX last year, so people will go into space on the Crew Dragon.

The first two tourists are investors Larry Connor and Mark Pathy. They will be accompanied by former NASA astronaut Michael López-Alegría, who will be the ship’s captain, and former Israeli pilot Eytan Stibbe, who will serve as the pilot. It is worth noting that this will be the first space flight with a private pilot.

Space tourism is not cheap. Sources say $ 55 million for an eight-day stay on the ISS. Axiom plans to start with a couple of such missions a year.