Having successfully brought NASA’s first astronauts to the International Space Station via private enterprise, Elon Musk is gearing up for his next media hit by announcing the first sightseeing mission to be carried out with SpaceX.
The company has announced that it will be sometime in the fourth quarter of 2021 (between October and December) when it will make the first commercial flight into space. The mission will be called Inspiration4 and the ticket may be free.
Tourists leaving the planet will do so from Falcon 9, which will take off from runway Launch Complex 39A at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida.
An opportunity for anyone
The great surprise of this news is not only that this year we will have the first space tourists, but that in the seats of the Falcon 9 there will be individuals from the general public and not just millionaires who could afford this trip without problem.
SpaceX has announced in its statement that Jared Isaacman, founder and CEO of Shift4 Payments, will donate three of the seats that will go with him in the Falcon 9, and to participate, people will only have to subscribe to the free Shift4 plan or make a donation of 10 dollars (about 200 Mexican pesos approximately).
The winners of the seats in the Falcon 9 will be revealed on February 28, and within the rules must meet two requirements: be over 18 years old and be a US citizen.
They will require special preparation
All mission crews will have to receive training at the SpaceX facility on zero gravity, microgravity, stress tests, emergency training, spacesuit and spacecraft entry and exit, mission simulations and more, although none of the crewmen will control the ship completely.
The company mentions that this trip will last several days and will orbit Earth every 90 minutes, but that the custom flight path will be carefully monitored by the SpaceX control team.
At the conclusion of the mission, the crew will return on a soft landing off the coast of Florida.
