Attention, people with $59 million just lying around: NASA is opening the International Space Station (ISS) to adventurous tourists, and those interested don’t need to hold their breath — space tourism could happen as soon as 2020.
The space tourists, who must be from the United States, will embark on a fleet of commercial vehicles owned by the U.S. government, Jeff DeWit, NASA’s chief financial officer, said at a news briefing today (June 7). DeWit estimated that one seat on the space flight, operated by SpaceX and Boeing, will cost $58 million — but that’s not including the cost of actually staying at the space station. Tourists then have the option to stay up to 30 days on the ISS. But every one of those 30 nights costs upward of $35,000, DeWit said, and he joked that “it won’t come with any Hilton or Marriott points.”
The ISS will be open to not only tourists, but also commercial ventures. That means that product testing, private research and even filming for outer-space movies could take place aboard the station. Yes, the next Apollo movie could actually be filmed in space.