U.S. Manned Space Status - Page 3 So how much does a Commercial Astronaut seat cost? With the close of the Space Shuttle program we were buying seats from Russia's ROSCOSMOS at $90M per seat. As of October 2020 that cost included training, preparation for launch, flight operations, landing and crew recovery. In 2019 The Office of Inspector General projected the costs per-seat of U.S. commercial providers Boeing and SpaceX at $90M and $55M respectively. Boeing contested the report. Jeff Foust of SPACENEWS on November 19,2019 wrote that Boeing Starliner seats would around $70M. In respect to Lockheed Martin Orion's crew modules (reuseable) NASA as of October 21, 2022 purchased three for $1.99B. The European Service Module is expendable so a new one is required for each Orion flight at around $271M U.S. dollars for each Others in the Mix
DREAM CHASER (Sierra-Space)
- Three to seven passengers capacity
currently not intended for ISS personnel
. NASA did not initially select Dream Chaser for commercial crew transportation. It was slated to begin ISS unmanned resupply in 2019 which has been
pushed out to December 2023
. It is slated to be launched by a ULA Vulcan.
NEW SHEPARD (Blue Origin) - SUBORBITAL - Flew its first suborbital flight on July 20,2021 from west Texas. On board were Jeff and Mark Bezos, 82-year-old "Mercury 13 Women in Space Program" Wally Funk, an 18-year-old Oliver Daemen. Oliver replaced a bidder that agreed to pay $18M but had a scheduling conflit - the ticket was purchased by Oliver's father. (The New Shepard is not rated for LEO operations.) Currently working on a lunar surface lander for supplies and crew transport between the lunar surface and moon-orbiting GATEWAY.
AXIOM SPACE
Commercial transport by SpaceX Dragons - read more
. Mission 1 to the ISS was successful. Mission 2 to the ISS projected to launch spring of 2023.
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