from the to-infinity-and-beyond,maybe dept.
SpaceX announces partnership to send four tourists into deep orbit:
SpaceX announced a new partnership Tuesday to send four tourists deeper into orbit than any private citizen before them, in a mission that could take place by 2022 and easily cost more than $100 million.
The company signed the deal with Space Adventures, which is based in Washington and served as an intermediary to send eight space tourists to the International Space Station (ISS) via Russian Soyuz rockets.
The first of these was Dennis Tito, who paid $20 million for an eight hour stay on the ISS back in 2001. The last to go was Cirque du Soleil founder Guy Laliberte, in 2009.
The new tourists would be carried on SpaceX's Crew Dragon capsule, which was developed to transport NASA astronauts and is due to make its first crewed flight in the coming months.
"Our goal is to try to get to about two to three times the height of the space station," Space Adventure's president Tom Shelley told AFP.
The ISS orbits at 400 kilometers (250 miles) above Earth's surface, but the exact altitude of the Space Adventures mission would be determined by SpaceX, added Shelley.
At its earliest, it could take place by late 2021, though "probably more likely is sometime in 2022," he said.
The capsule was designed to take astronauts from the surface to the ISS. Just nine square meters in volume[sic], there are no private areas to sleep wash or use the bathroom.
Mission duration will depend on what the customers want, said Shelley.
Space Adventures has posted its official announcement on its website.
Related Stories
SpaceX tourist trips to space station reportedly to cost $55 million each:
A trio of space tourists will blast off to the International Space Station (ISS) in a SpaceX capsule, after Axiom Space made a deal with Elon Musk's company on Thursday. The first 10-day trip could happen in the latter half of next year, the company said in a release.
However, it won't be cheap -- a seat could set you back around $55 million, the New York Times reported, and one person has already signed up. Two days will be spent traveling to and from the space station, and eight on board. The tourists will be accompanied by an Axiom astronaut who'll make sure they don't distract the ISS crewmembers.
"This will be just the first of many missions to ISS to be completely crewed and managed by Axiom Space -- a first for a commercial entity," Axiom boss Michael T. Suffredini said in a statement. "Procuring the transportation marks significant progress toward that goal, and we're glad to be working with SpaceX in this effort."
Previously:
SpaceX Announces Partnership to Send Four Tourists Into Deep Orbit
Arthur T Knackerbracket has found the following story:
[Editor's note: SN3 is SpaceX parlance for "Serial Number 3"; Elon Musk is not just working on building rockets, he's building an assembly line and plans to build one Starship a week. This helps explain the use of serial numbers. --martyb]
For almost a year now, SpaceX has been building a series of Starship prototypes that will test how the system fares when launched to orbit.
[...] Musk recently shared images of the components for the SN3 prototype undergoing assembly.
Shortly after these images were shared, the assembled components were seen on their way to the company's test facility at Boca Chica, Texas, on the morning of March 29th. They were then seen being transferred to the launch pad by roll-lift and crane as of late afternoon. Footage of both these events was captured by the LabPadre and shared via Twitter.
SN3 pic.twitter.com/bM1wzzd4Zg
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk)
Like its predecessors, the next step for the SN3 will be cryogenic loading trials in which the spacecraft's methane and oxygen tanks will be filled with a cryogenic liquid (most likely liquid nitrogen).
[...] In a previous statement, Musk announced that the SN3 would be used for static fire tests and short flights, whereas longer test flights will wait for the SN4. [...] There is [...] documentation that indicates that SpaceX will be conducting tests as early as next week.
The documents, which were shared on NASASpaceFlight, reference a permit issued by the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) for the "Starhopper" vehicle, which is valid until June 2020. They further suggest that a static fire of the SN3's engines could take place between April 1st and 3rd, followed by a 150-meter (500 ft) hop test between April 6th and 8th. This was the maximum height achieved by the Starship Hopper.
[...] Once the Starship is finished and integrated with the Super Heavy booster, Musk hopes to begin conducting payload runs to the moon by 2022, followed by crewed missions to the surface by 2024. In between, Musk also intends to conduct the first lunar tourism mission (#dearmoon), which will involve sending a crew of artists around the moon in 2023.
-- submitted from IRC
Previously:
(2020-04-01) SpaceX Releases a Payload User's Guide for its Starship Rocket
(2020-03-10) Another Starship Prototype Explodes, but SpaceX Isn't Stopping
(2020-02-19) SpaceX Announces Partnership to Send Four Tourists Into Deep Orbit
(2020-01-18) Elon Musk Discloses Details for SpaceX Mars Mega-Colony
(Score: 2) by takyon on Wednesday February 19 2020, @12:42PM (7 children)
Crew Dragon vs. Starship
9.3 m3 / +1,100 m3
7 seats / 40 cabins + rooms
LEO joyride / swing around the Moon
proven technology / could explode
[SIG] 10/28/2017: Soylent Upgrade v14 [soylentnews.org]
(Score: 2) by Immerman on Wednesday February 19 2020, @03:24PM (6 children)
>Proven technology
Umm, you're talking about the capsule that just exploded a couple tests ago...
Maybe it's just me, but "proven technology" in a space capsule suggests something that's flown at least a few dozen times *without* exploding.
(Score: 2) by takyon on Wednesday February 19 2020, @03:31PM (5 children)
The Falcon 9 booster is proven, and Crew Dragon made it to ISS, is similar to Cargo Dragon, and only exploded in a test after it had returned to Earth and got dunked in seawater.
[SIG] 10/28/2017: Soylent Upgrade v14 [soylentnews.org]
(Score: 2) by Immerman on Wednesday February 19 2020, @04:12PM (4 children)
The booster is fairly well proven, certainly.
The module itself though - even including the Cargo Dragon there've still been less than two dozen flights total, two of which experienced anomalies, and one which failed - due to the carrier rocket exploding rather than a problem with the module, but while the the module could likely have survived, the software hadn't been written to consider that situation and failed to deploy parachutes.
It's certainly well on its way to being proven technology, but I would say it hasn't quite got there yet.
Of course it does beat the socks off the as-yet completely untested Starship.
(Score: 3, Informative) by Freeman on Wednesday February 19 2020, @04:48PM (3 children)
The Space Shuttle is the only American space vehicle that has been used more. Personally, I'd call it proven, with Starship being the possible to explode, unproven vehicle.
Space Shuttle Numbers:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Space_Shuttle [wikipedia.org]
Apollo Command and Control Module Numbers:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Apollo_command_and_service_module [wikipedia.org]
Mercury Project:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Project_Mercury#Spacecraft [wikipedia.org]
Joshua 1:9 "Be strong and of a good courage; be not afraid, neither be thou dismayed: for the Lord thy God is with thee"
(Score: 2) by Immerman on Wednesday February 19 2020, @05:00PM (2 children)
Put those numbers in perspective - the Shuttle had a 2/135 = 1.5% failure rate
The Dragon capsule in comparison has had a 1/21 = 4.8% failure rate
The Dragon will need to more than triple the number of missions flown without any additional failures in order to reach the reliability track record of the space shuttle.
Mercury and Apollo certainly fared far worse - but they were cutting edge military projects, not civilian transportation. The standards are far different.
Personally, I find a 5% chance of death to be a little high for a joy ride.
(Score: 2) by Osamabobama on Wednesday February 19 2020, @10:46PM (1 child)
That may be a good rough number for planning purposes, but if you were putting money on it*, you should expect it to be lower, because the failure has since been mitigated. That is, the potential causes of failure in the past were more numerous than current potential causes.
* That is to say, it's not your death that is on the line.
Appended to the end of comments you post. Max: 120 chars.
(Score: 2) by Immerman on Thursday February 20 2020, @02:08AM
Well, they *attempted* mitigation anyway.
Only time will tell if the mitigation was successful, and if any new problems were introduced in the process.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday February 19 2020, @12:51PM (11 children)
(Score: 2) by takyon on Wednesday February 19 2020, @01:13PM (3 children)
Bigelow has already paid SpaceX for up to 4 private trips to the ISS [spaceflightnow.com]:
Bigelow's big plans for inflatable hotels haven't gone anywhere. They haven't sent any more modules to the ISS. They probably need Starship or SLS to launch their giant BA 2100 [wikipedia.org] if that ever gets built.
While the ISS has been using a Bigelow prototype [wikipedia.org] as a broom closet, NASA has gone with a different, Boeing-backed company [spaceflightnow.com] to provide real use of inflatables:
Bigelow was *the* big name in inflatable modules, now it looks like they are paying SpaceX to send tourists to a competitor's modules.
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(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday February 19 2020, @01:54PM (1 child)
Yeah, I guess windows are important. Bigelow should build something independent with the experience they aquired.
(Score: 2) by takyon on Wednesday February 19 2020, @02:11PM
They could add a B330 module to the Lunar Gateway [theverge.com], and they made plans to launch an independent space hotel [futurism.com] in 2021. The first article says that the ISS deal with SpaceX is over/paused because they are having trouble finding people who would pay $52 million a ticket and there's a lot of bureaucracy involved. So it beats me what Bigelow will do next. A cheap-to-launch Starship would make their plans much more viable though.
[SIG] 10/28/2017: Soylent Upgrade v14 [soylentnews.org]
(Score: 2) by Immerman on Wednesday February 19 2020, @03:59PM
>Bigelow's big plans for inflatable hotels haven't gone anywhere.
Where would they go? Last I heard they're still waiting for rockets big enough to launch their production model B330 (though... I think Falcon Heavy might be just capable)
>They haven't sent any more modules to the ISS.
Why would they? The current BEAM module is a long-term proof-of-concept module that's doubling as a storage closet. Not any point in sending up anything else until NASA or one of the other space agencies involved is prepared to purchase a B330 to add useful capacity to the ISS
Given the resounding success of the BEAM, I'm rather surprised that NASA would select some unproven startup to expand the ISS with more metal cans, rather than at least including a Bigelow module in the plan. I'm wondering if there's some political maneuvering or other non-technical reasoning behind that decision.
On the other hand, last I heard Bigelow was still planning to launch their own independent commercial space station within the next few years. Perhaps with those plans in place, they just weren't feeling "cooperative" enough to play ball with NASA as well.
Hmm, or perhaps NASA is intentionally positioning themselves as a proving ground to foster commercial development in the space station market. With Bigelow having a business plan and proven technology for large-volume habitation and work modules, fostering another company specializing in more traditional hard modules could be a smart move - there's lots of more complicated systems that aren't well suited to direct integration into inflatable modules. And assuming both companies are designing to the ISS's standard for linking modules, you should be able to mix-and-match Bigelow and Axiom modules as desired for future space stations.
(Score: 2) by Phoenix666 on Wednesday February 19 2020, @01:21PM (2 children)
Once the Moon Nazis [wikipedia.org] have been vanquished they should build a retirement colony on the Moon. Old people will enjoy the micro-gravity and the pants-optional Fridays.
Washington DC delenda est.
(Score: 1) by Kitsune008 on Wednesday February 19 2020, @03:34PM (1 child)
Yeah, but if they send most USAians, they will have to watch out for the 'Whalers on the Moon' mistaking them for prey. ;-)
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday February 19 2020, @05:22PM
If the 'Whalers on the Moon' puncture Trumps ego he's liable to explode.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday February 19 2020, @10:31PM (3 children)
I know! Pornhub originals studio. will get younger generations interested in space.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday February 20 2020, @12:51AM (2 children)
Nothing sexier than throwing up in zero-g.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday February 20 2020, @03:00PM (1 child)
Hmmm. Vomit flying around in zero-G wasn't the bodily fluid I was thinking here.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday February 20 2020, @07:35PM
You don't get a choice. Half of the would-be stars will get space sickness.