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Re:Boeing has now lost $1.1B on Starliner, with no crew flig... by Animats on Wednesday July 26, 2023 @02:43PM (#36882815)
Right, billionaire space tourism is a thing.
Re:Boeing has now lost $1.1B on Starliner, with no crew flig... by signatoremo on Thursday July 27, 2023 @12:29AM (#36888926)
So there is indeed a market for private flights? Saudi Arabia and Turkey also purchased seats on Dragon for their space programs. The market exists alright
Re:Boeing has now lost $1.1B on Starliner, with no crew flig... by shirro on Thursday July 27, 2023 @03:16AM (#36890060)
Yes it is. It is hoped that finding commercial applications for space technology will benefit NASA by giving providers more opportunity to amortise development costs and lower prices.

It isn't all billionaires but they are part of the picture as it is probably around $55 million per seat for orbital flights though the exact numbers are not disclosed.

Axiom's last mission had two Saudi astronauts (Saudi airforce captain and a biomedical scientist) funded by their government.

The next Axiom mission will be flying astronauts for the Turkish space agency(air force colonel), Italian defence force (test pilot) and Swedish space agency/ESA (test pilot, esa astronaut) as well as their Axiom commander who is a legendary ex-NASA astronaut.

Even the upcoming Polaris Dawn which is funded by billionaire Isaacman will have two SpaceX lead operations engineers and an ex-USAF fighter pilot onboard and Isaacman is a respectable pilot himself. They are going to be pushing private spaceflight to new limits.