ORLANDO, Fla. — A space tourism company says it's made an agreement with SpaceX to launch passengers aboard its Crew Dragon spacecraft.
- Company has deal with SpaceX to carry passengers on Crew Dragon
- Space Adventures says it will take up to 4 people on mission into orbit
- SpaceX recently had successful test of Dragon launch abort system
Space Adventures Inc. said Tuesday that the agreement will allow for up to four people to ride aboard one of the capsules for a flight into orbit.
"This historic mission will forge a path to making spaceflight possible for all people who dream of it, and we are pleased to work with the Space Adventures' team on the mission," SpaceX President and COO Gwynne Shotwell said in a news release.
The autonomous Crew Dragon capsule would be launched aboard a Falcon 9 rocket and would give paying passengers "the opportunity to break the world altitude record for private citizen spaceflight," Washington-based Space Adventures said.
It didn't say how much a mission would cost passengers, from where it would launch, or when. On its website, Space Adventures also touts a six-day mission around the moon, launched into space aboard a Russian spacecraft.
Last month, SpaceX conducted a successful test of the Crew Dragon's launch abort systems capabilities, which will allow SpaceX to abort a launch and get the crew to safety away from a rocket in case something goes catastrophically wrong during a launch. The test was an important final milestone in the company's quest to launch people aboard the capsule, which SpaceX hopes is this spring.
In 2018, SpaceX CEO Elon Musk announced that a Japanese billionaire was the first paying passenger to fly around the moon using the company's "BFR" rocket, which is bigger than its Falcon Heavy rocket and supposedly has its own dedicated area for crew.
Sir Richard Branson's Virgin Galactic is also developing a space tourism program. The company has touted an offer of "a unique, multi-day experience culminating in a personal spaceflight that includes out-of-seat gravity and views of Earth from space."