NASA opens ISS to Space Tourism

NASA has announced that it will open up the International Space Station to business ventures including space tourism as it seeks to financially disengage from the orbiting research lab.

Price tag? Tens of millions of dollars for a round trip ticket and $35,000 a night.

There will be up to two short private astronaut missions per year, said Robyn Gatens, deputy director of the ISS. The missions will be for stays of up to 30 days. As many as a dozen private astronauts could visit the ISS per year, NASA said.

These travelers would be ferried to the orbiter exclusively by the two US companies currently developing transport vehicles for NASA: SpaceX, with its Crew Dragon capsule, and Boeing, which is building one called Starliner.

These companies would choose the clients—who will not have to be US citizens—and bill for the trip to the ISS, which will be the most expensive part of the adventure: around $58 million for a roundtrip ticket.

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NASA has announced that it will open up the International Space Station to business ventures including space tourism as it seeks to financially disengage from the orbiting research lab.