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Full Version: NASA to open tourism on ISS in 2020
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https://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-48560874

NASA recently tweeted that they would open the International Space Station (ISS) up to tourists who want to visit space in 2020. They are looking to make space travel more accessible to regular people and have hired private companies to help with the construction of spacecrafts as well as crew safety and other features. The companies hired by NASA are SpaceX, which will use its Dragon capsule and Boeing, which will use its Starliner. They also announced the privatization of the ISS which contrasts to when they previously banned commercial use of the space station. The price for one person to stay on the ISS for one night would cost them $35K USD, a price which is very high for the average person, yet not very surprising, I would have expected a heftier cost. I think this announcement is a great step to introduce another mode of business that will take place beyond our skies and can further make it more accessible to us in the future. Who knows, maybe schools in a few decades will be going to space for field trips.
Hearing about possible public trips to space is exciting as well as frightening. Of course being able to experience space travel would be an amazing experience,  I would be overwhelmed with all of the "what if" scenarios. As understandable as the high price is, I don't think I would be able to fork up that much money for a trip to space, as much as I would like to be able to.
Having a tour in space for the price of a minivan sounds a little funny to me but it's great that NASA is beginning to include normal people in their travels to space.