After a first private flight to the international space station, are we heading towards a privatization of space?

The crew consists of a former astronaut and three wealthy businessmen. They paid more than 50 million euros each for 8 days in Earth orbit. 20 hours later, they docked with the International Space Station, theISSwhere seven astronauts currently live. A dozen novices have already been there before. But today, it is SpaceX that transports and Axiom Space who organizes – private groups that NASA no longer sees with a bad eye.

“Around 2030, we could reverse roles, have our professional astronauts focused up there, on research, and let the private vendors do all that hard lab maintenance work.“, says even Kathy Ludershead of manned programs at NASA. In 2030, theISS should reach the end of its life. Before that, Axiom planned to hang several modules there and be autonomous in 2028. This new private station could for example be leased to NASA. Enough to open up the hypothesis of space tourism, even if the costs will still be just as high.