SpaceX announces partnership to send four people into deep orbit

SpaceX announced its intention to send four peopledeeper into orbitthan any private citizen before them, in a mission that could cost more than $100 million and take place by 2022.

A new partnership with Space Adventures precedes this announcement and the new business partner of SpaceX is based in Washington, serving as an intermediary to send eight space tourists to the International Space Station (ISS) viaRussian Soyuz rockets.

Add WION as a Preferred Source

The first person to have paid for this service was Dennis Tito who spent eight hours on the ISS in 2001 for $20 million. 2009 was the year Guy Laliberte, the founder of Cirque du Soleil Space Adventures' last customer, decided to book a tripto the ISS.

See:After a successful rocket abort system test, SpaceX to carry humans into orbit this year

Future customers will be transported to their destination on SpaceX's Crew Dragon capsule, which wasdeveloped to transportNASA astronauts and is due to make its first crewed flight in the coming months.

President of Space Adventures, Tom Shelley stated that at its earliest, the mission could take place by late 2021, though "probably more likely is sometime in 2022."

The duration of the mission will depend on the demands of the customers, stated Shelley. The capsule designed to take astronauts fromthe surface to the ISSis nine square meters in volume with no private areas to sleep, shower or use the bathroom.

Weeks of training

[SpaceX chief Elon Musk speaks during a press conference (Courtesy: AFP) ]

Thecost of launchinga Falcon 9 rocket is $62 million, according to publicly available figures, then there will be the cost of building a fresh Dragon capsule. Could it exceed $100 million?

The funding required to launch a Falcon 9 rocket is $62 million as per publicly available data. Adding to that isthe cost of buildinga fresh Dragon capsule, which has made many suspect the cost for the trip would exceed $100 million.

Shelley had this to say when asked about the cost, "It's not cheap. Your assessment is correct, I can't comment specifically on the numbers, but yeah those are the cost components."

"We havea pretty good networkof high net worth individuals around the world, many of whom we know are interested in spaceflight," he added.

See:SpaceX shows off upcoming missions

The company announced in 2005 plans to send tourists around the Moon - but that mission has now been abandoned, confirmed Shelley.

Other companies involved in space tourism are Jeff Bezos' Blue Origin and Richard Branson's Virgin Galactic. The offer fromSpaceX is far more ambitiousand utilises the same reusable Falcon 9 rocket that puts satellites into space and sends astronauts to the ISS.

Much like SpaceX and other companies, Boeing also has plans to send passengers into space, but the development of their program has beenmarred by major glitchesthat resulted in the early termination of an uncrewed test flight in December.