Privatize the space? NASA runs out of money to open International Space Station to tourists – RT USA News

The US space agency has announced the opening of a section of the space station in the United States, which could be leased to private astronauts or commercial companies, as soon as next year . Customers will not only have access to space, they will even be able to use NASA's astronauts for their commercial work and use their technology to carry out their projects – that's one of them. movie shooting, an advertisement or perhaps the most expensive birthday party in the world. .

The use of the ISS will not be cheap, of course – it would be counterproductive. A "mission" of up to 30 days would cost more than $ 50 million. While NASA will only send two private missions a year, the money is quickly accumulating and would go a long way in filling the remaining void, as the Trump Administration's interest in returning to the Moon diminishes.

NASA is struggling to keep pace with private space companies such as SpaceX and Blue Origin, which are not constrained by the vicissitudes of government budgets and are free to market their smallest movements. Until the announcement on Thursday of the opening of the ISS door to the public (very rich), NASA has never allowed anything without educational or research element – certainly not private visitors – and its "Welcome" the video is a little disorienting.

"The creation of a dynamic economy in low Earth orbit has always been a driving force of the space station program", Astronaut Christina Koch said by promising that the new NASA privatized "Will make space more accessible to all Americans."

Unlike former government-funded Moon missions, the new and improved NASA will send "Private astronauts" to the ISS on privately funded specialty flights operated by companies such as SpaceX and Boeing, using US spacecraft as a means of transport; NASA hopes that as these trips become more frequent, their operators will develop better and cheaper technology.

Not surprisingly, news that space travel will be accessible to "All Americans" sparked a reaction on Twitter. "Do you really want to do this? Most Americans can not even operate on the ground," Hugh Strudy to joke, while John Pipkin request he could use his Capital One reward miles during a flight to space. However, most of the reaction was that people pointed out that space travel would surely be too expensive for the vast majority. Many also wondered why NASA had limited travel to Americans.

NASA finally suggests that the ISS will simply be an outpost en route to a series of "Gateways" floating near the Moon, then Mars, and plan to put an ISS port at the disposal of private companies for commercial purposes, in the hope of triggering the creation of dozens of "Private space stations" in low Earth orbit.

NASA's attempt to formulate a plan to return to the moon in 2024 without selling to the highest bidder was destroyed and burned last month, forcing the project's general secretary to resign, Mark Sirangelo, after Congress refused to provide the agency with the necessary funds to reach the moon.

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Despite his brave face, Jim Bridenstine, head of NASA, continued to avoid any estimate of the total cost of the project and the scale of sudden commercialism he suddenly adopted – allowing companies to purchase the rights of designation of rockets, for example – suggests that the number is quite large indeed.

This bodes ill for the future of the program because, according to his Twitter feed, President Trump is already bored of the moon and went to Mars.

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