A few days back we told you about an Uber-like smartphone app named “Shuttle” that plans to sell trips to space, which range from $250,000 seat on the Virgin Galactic spacecraft to $5000 ride aboard the tricked-out zero-gravity Boeing 747. Well, if you want to feel like a real astronaut and have $55 million to spare, a company called Axiom Space will take you on a 10-day tour of the International Space Station (ISS). The Houston-based company’s space package includes the orbital stay, transportation to and from the ISS, and a 15-week astronaut-training program. According to the company, their first commercial mission to the ISS will be launched as early as 2020. The company is headed by Michael Suffredini, who managed NASA’s ISS program for a decade. “It is an honor to continue the work that NASA and its partners have begun, to bring awareness to the profound benefits of human space exploration and to involve more countries and private citizens in these endeavors,” Suffredini said in a statement.
Axiom space is also working on developing its own station to accommodate its space tourists. With a plan to complete it by 2022, the commercial outpost will attach itself to the ISS, and it will detach itself to orbit freely once the ISS is ready to be deorbited. The interior of the commercial station is being readied in partnership with French architect Philippe Starck and is expected to be more luxurious than the utilitarian spaces of the ISS. “This is a dream project for a creator like me with a genuine fascination for aviation and space exploration,” Starck said in the same statement. “The greatest human intelligence in the world focuses on space research. My vision for the habitation module on Axiom Station is to create a comfortable egg that is inviting, with soft walls and a design perfectly in harmony with the values and movements of the human body in zero gravity.” Axiom Space is not the only company that’s planning to build luxury suites in the space. A company named “Orion Span” announced earlier this year that they have started accepting reservations for a luxury space hotel which is planned to be be put in orbit by 2021.
[Via:Space]
