NASA to Sell Tickets to Travel to Space

NASA is thinking of selling seats on the spacecraft that is going to ferry its astronauts to the International Space Station. Thereby offering rides to the public to travel to space, which is otherwise a closed-door affair only for astronauts, researchers and scientists.

In the past, Russia has flown individuals who have paid millions for the ride to space. Now a group of companies run by billionaire businessmen are also exploring avenues to fly tourists out of the atmosphere. But NASA has so far not allowed private citizens on its rockets, except for few occasions, like the one where Christa McAuliffe, the teacher was killed when the Space Shuttle Challenger he was travelling, exploded in the year 1986.

Michael Gold, who is leading the advisory council’s policy reform effort, says, “Just like in the early days of aviation, with barnstorming, these initial activities will help build the infrastructure and the foundation that can lead to future innovations that, frankly, we cannot imagine right now”.

The proposal is backed by a NASA advisory subcommittee, which is still in its initial stage that seeks to introduce the public consciousness by working with the private sector. Along with the selling of the seats, the space agency is exploring the avenues of allowing its logo to be used for commercial purposes and allowing its astronauts to appear in commercials that would boost the brand of the agency.

The group is also exploring how the agency could allow some of the rules that prohibit it from endorsing particular products and services. It also is exploring possibility of selling naming rights for its rockets.

The move is also seen as the attempt by the White House to seek an end to direct funding of the International Space Station by 2025 and turns the space and orbiting laboratory to a commercial entity. Though the plan has been met with fierce resistance from Congress and questions where also raised, how it would be achieved and funded.

Selling seats perhaps may be a small step toward achieving that goal. NASA now could charge millions of dollars for the rides on the spacecraft developed by Boeing and SpaceX to fly crews to the space station. The revenue generated by the sale of tickets would be used to help the agency facilitate its commercialization of space platforms in and beyond the low Earth orbit.