Aerospace manufacturer SpaceX has formed a partnership with space tourism company Space Adventures to organize a trip aboard its Crew Dragon spacecraft.
SpaceX tasked Space Adventures with organizing a trip orbiting the earth aboard its Crew Dragon spacecraft. The trip will accommodate four people and could take place in late 2021.
The space tourism company, which has organized eight tourism trips to the International Space Station (ISS) between 2001 and 2009, issued a press release and video regarding the SpaceX trip on Tuesday.
The travelers would spend up to five days huddled inside the gumdrop-shaped spacecraft while it traverses the earth's orbit.
Space Adventures chairman Eric Anderson said the flight path could take the tourists to altitudes two to three times higher than where the International Space Station orbits. He tweeted that this would be the furthest anyone has traveled from Earth in decades.
Anderson likened the possible views to what the astronauts aboard NASA's Gemini 11 mission witnessed in 1966.
According to a Space Adventures spokesperson, the price of the trip will be "in the range as other orbital spaceflight opportunities," which have have been priced in the tens of millions of dollars.
However, before it can transport humans, SpaceX's Crew Dragon spacecraft needs to be certified by NASA first, which is estimated to be completed in the coming weeks. The last major testing milestone has been completed by the spacecraft in January.
In 2014, SpaceX received $2.6 billion from NASA to develop the Crew Dragon. Similarly, the agency granted Boeing a $4.2 billion deal for the development of its Starliner spacecraft.
NASA plans to utilize both spacecraft to ensure that the ISS is fully staffed with professionally trained astronauts. However, SpaceX and Boeing will still retain ownership and operations of the space vehicles.
NASA also allowed both companies to use their spacecraft for other types of missions, including space tourism.
