SpaceX will send 4 (probably very rich) space tourists into orbit

Are you a rich person itching to go to space? You could be one of the four people that Elon Musk’s SpaceX takes into orbit.

As CNBC reported Tuesday, SpaceX’s Crew Dragon space capsule will carry four non-astronauts on a five-day journey into space. 

The Crew Dragon is being tested for a crewed NASA trip to the International Space Station with two astronauts onboard this May.

Space tourism company Space Adventures is coordinating the trip. It’s set for as soon as the end of 2021, but could happen in 2022. The capsule, which can fit up to seven people, will launch from Cape Canaveral in Florida.

We reached out to SpaceX for more information about the trip, and they connected Mashable to a Space Adventures spokesperson who said trip details will be finalized once the four customers are confirmed. 

The Space Adventures website is down, but an archived webpage from June explains the company’s vision: “Space Adventures wants as many people as possible to experience what it is like to live in space, to circle the Earth, or travel beyond Earth orbit. In the next ten years, our clients will have a choice as to what vehicle to fly to space on, and will be able to choose from multiple different destinations.”

Former *NSYNC singer Lance Bass trained with Space Adventures for a canceled trip to the International Space Station. Others, like Cirque Du Soleil founder Guy Laliberte, made it to the ISS with the space travel company for $35 million, but using Russian equipment. 

Space.com reported Space Adventures’ ISS trips come with a price tag in the “tens of millions of dollars.” So to orbit Earth in a SpaceX craft just after real astronauts do has to be costly. The Space Adventures spokesperson said the price tag would be “in the range as other orbital spaceflight opportunities.”