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NASA will begin allowing tourists to visit the International Space Station, but the trip will likely be reserved for the ultra-rich who can afford the expected multi-million dollar price.
The agency will not coordinate travel directly but plans to work with outside companies, said Friday. The price per night for businesses to host visitors in the facility is only $ 35,000. The costs will be reviewed every six months.
NASA hopes that by opening the station to commercial travel, it will expand the space exploration market while aiming to send humans back to the Moon by 2024.
"The ultimate goal of the Low Earth Orbit Agency is to partner with industry to create a powerful ecosystem in which NASA is one of the many customers who buy services and capabilities at lower cost," the statement said.
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President Trump, however, does not subscribe to NASA's plans, tweeting that the agency should not talk about the moon and should "focus on the much bigger things we do, including Mars".
While record amounts of foreign investment are pouring into the US space industry, companies like SpaceX are making the promise of lower-cost commercial travel to the "last frontier" more feasible.
And by funding riskier but less expensive projects, NASA hopes to break free to solve more complex problems, such as deep space travel.
"Right now, there is no commercial market on the moon, there is no commercial market on Mars," Jim Bridenstine told Fox Business.
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"If we can do what we need to do in low Earth orbit as a customer, then we can focus on capacity building on the moon, reducing the risk to the moon … and marketing that activity, then on Mars. ," he added.
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