Īs the shuttle program expanded in the early 1980s, NASA began a Space Flight Participant program to allow citizens without scientific or governmental roles to fly. The presentation also forecast flights to lunar orbit within 30 years and visits to the lunar surface within 50 years. A 1985 presentation to the National Space Society stated that, although flying tourists in the cabin would cost $1 million to $1.5 million per passenger without government subsidy, within 15 years, 30,000 people a year would pay US$25,000 (equivalent to $68,023 in 2022) each to fly in space on new spacecraft. Another proposal was based on the Spacelab habitation modules, which provided 32 seats in the payload bay in addition to those in the cockpit area. Passengers were located in six sections, each with windows and its own loading ramp, and with seats in different configurations for launch and landing. Space Habitation Design Associates proposed, in 1983, a cabin for 72 passengers in the bay. The cabin could carry up to 74 passengers into orbit for up to three days. : 74–75 During the 1970s, Shuttle prime contractor Rockwell International studied a $200–300 million removable cabin that could fit into the Shuttle's cargo bay. Walker became the first non-government astronaut to fly, with his employer McDonnell Douglas paying US$40,000 (equivalent to $112,671 in 2022) for his flight. In 1983, Ulf Merbold from the ESA and Byron Lichtenberg from MIT (engineer and Air Force fighter pilot) were the first payload specialists to fly on the Space Shuttle, on mission STS-9. These payload specialists did not receive the same training as professional NASA astronauts and were not employed by NASA. The US Space Shuttle program included payload specialist positions which were usually filled by representatives of companies or institutions managing a specific payload on that mission. The European Space Agency (ESA) also took advantage of the program. Most of these cosmonauts received full training for their missions and were treated as equals, but were generally given shorter flights than Soviet cosmonauts. The Soviet Intercosmos program included cosmonauts selected from Warsaw Pact member countries ( Czechoslovakia, Poland, East Germany, Bulgaria, Hungary, Romania) and later from allies of the USSR (Cuba, Mongolia, Vietnam) and non-aligned countries (India, Syria, Afghanistan). The Soviet space program was successful in broadening the pool of cosmonauts. SpaceX announced in 2018 that they are planning on sending space tourists, including Yusaku Maezawa, on a free-return trajectory around the Moon on the Starship. This is being done by aerospace companies like Blue Origin and Virgin Galactic. Work also continues towards developing suborbital space tourism vehicles. On June 7, 2019, NASA announced that starting in 2020, the organization aims to start allowing private astronauts to go on the International Space Station, with the use of the SpaceX Crew Dragon spacecraft and the Boeing Starliner spacecraft for public astronauts, which is planned to be priced at 35,000 USD per day for one astronaut, and an estimated 50 million USD for the ride there and back. Russian orbital tourism eventually resumed with the launch of Soyuz MS-20 in 2021. Orbital tourist flights were set to resume in 2015 but the planned flight was postponed indefinitely. Russia halted orbital space tourism in 2010 due to the increase in the International Space Station crew size, using the seats for expedition crews that would previously have been sold to paying spaceflight participants. By 2007, space tourism was thought to be one of the earliest markets that would emerge for commercial spaceflight. Some space tourists have signed contracts with third parties to conduct certain research activities while in orbit. The publicized price was in the range of US$20–25 million per trip. There are several different types of space tourism, including orbital, suborbital and lunar space tourism.ĭuring the period from 2001 to 2009, seven space tourists made eight space flights aboard a Russian Soyuz spacecraft to the International Space Station, brokered by Space Adventures in conjunction with Roscosmos and RSC Energia. Space tourism is human space travel for recreational purposes. Expendable and reusable launch vehicles.Soyuz MS-20 crew on the International Space Station, from left to right: Yusaku Maezawa (space tourist), Alexander Misurkin (cosmonaut), and Yozo Hirano (space tourist). For persons in space other than government employees, see Space flight participant.
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