SpaceX plans to send tourists to International Space Station by 2021

SpaceX on March 4 announced its plans to send three tourists to the International Space Station. The endeavour, if it is pulled off, will be the first private trip in more than a decade. According to reports, SpaceX has signed a deal with Axiom Space and the trip is scheduled to take place in the second half of 2021.

Trip to cost tens of millions of dollars

As per reports, the tourists will be sent to the International Space Station in its Crew Dragon capsule along with one commander. Reports also quoted Axiom CEO Michael Suffredini saying that the flight will represent a watershed movement and bring the world closer to universal and routine access to space. Suffredini did not reveal a price tag the tourists will have to pay in order to be able to go to the International Space Station.

According to reports, the cost of launching a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket is roughly $60 million and then given the cost of SpaceX's Crew Dragon capsule, the cost could easily cross $100 million. Therefore it is estimated that each individual ticket will cost tens of millions of dollars.

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In total eight space tourists have gone to the International Space station, the first was Dennis Tito, who paid $20 million for an eight-hour stay on the ISS back in 2001 and the last was Cirque du Soleil founder Guy Laliberte who went in 2009. All eight tourists travelled on Russian Soyuz rockets with the company Space Adventures.

The trip is projected for late 2021 but is more likely to be held in 2022. Other companies that are involved in space tourism are  Richard Branson's Virgin Galactic and Jeff Bezos's Blue Origin. These two companies are developing vessels that will send tourists just beyond the border of space- 80 kilometres.

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Tickets offered by Virgin start at $250,000. The tickets went on sale in the mid-2000s. SpaceX is offering a much more ambitious plane that is powered by the same Falcon 9 rocket that is used to put satellites into space and astronauts to the International Space Station.