Four pioneering space tourists went on a three-day joyride to space. The spacecraft used for the joyride was Crew Dragon. SpaceX states that the demand for space tourism has increased after the visit to the earth’s orbit.
“The amount of people who are approaching us through our sales and marketing portals has actually increased significantly,” the company’s senior director of human spaceflight programs, Benji Reed, said during Saturday’s press conference, as quoted by Ars Technica. “There’s tons of interest rolling in now.”
This might be the beginning of space tourism as the Starship, a bigger spacecraft, is almost ready to soar through the skies. This spacecraft will have the ability to carry a lot more passengers at a time.
“And then, on the horizon, of course, is Starship. Starship will be able to carry a lot more people at once,” he added. “So, you know, there’s really both options, and we have interest for both Dragons and Starships, which is pretty exciting.”
But having said that, we must bear in mind that the problems faced by SpaceX for the completion of Starship are tricky, to say the least. First, with its Super Heavy booster, the launch system is far from ready to head up to orbit.
With a crew dragon serving as an ice breaker, the prospect of a gigantic spaceship housing 100s of individuals is not a far fetched one. Of course, the crew dragon has its own attractions, but without a doubt, a cruise ship is always a better idea in comparison to a taxi!
Reed stated that the company is also open to building more economical and smaller Crew Dragon capsules for tourism “if the demand is there.”
