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Tuesday, September 14, 2021

SpaceX will be the first firm to offer space tourism in orbit, over three days, to those ready, willing and able to pay the fee.

 Link. In part -

SpaceX’s first private flight will be led by a 38-year-old entrepreneur who’s bankrolling the entire trip. He’s taking two sweepstakes winners with him on the three-day, round-the-world trip, along with a health care worker who survived childhood cancer.

They’ll ride alone in a fully automated Dragon capsule, the same kind that SpaceX uses to send astronauts to and from the International Space Station for NASA. But the chartered flight won’t be going there.

Set to launch Wednesday night from Kennedy Space Center, the two men and two women will soar 100 miles (160 kilometers) higher than the space station, aiming for an altitude of 357 miles (575 kilometers), just above the current position of the Hubble Space Telescope.

By contrast, Virgin Galactic’s Richard Branson and Blue Origin’s Jeff Bezos briefly skimmed space during their short rides in July — Branson reached 53 miles (86 kilometers) while Bezos hit 66 miles up (106 kilometers).

 The thought here is that Musk should expressly ask Branson and Bezos if either would want to book a flight - pitch it as "the real thing" and not some brief all in a day hundred kilometer or so into space and back, but more. Not that either would accept. Just a public offer, to see if any response arises.