Boeing Joins Space Tourism Industry

Boeing has announced that, as part of a partnership with space tourism company Space Adventures, it will be offering tourists rides on its CST-100 spacecraft.

The Crew Space Transportation-100, which has already been designed by Boeing, resembles the old Apollo capsules. It is being built to shuttle astronauts to and from the International Space Station, in low Earth orbit. The craft will contain seven seats. Four will be filled by astronauts, and three will be available to tourists.

Boeing has stated that the seats will be available to private individuals and companies, as well as to federal agencies besides NASA and to non-governmental organizations.

CST is expected to be fully operational by 2015.

Space Adventures, a Virginia company, has already sent seven space tourists aboard Russia's Soyuz spacecraft, which also travels to and from the ISS.

Boeing has not yet stated how much seats on the CST will cost, but it is believed that they will range from around $20 million to $50 million.

Although space tourism is still prohibitively expensive for most people, many hope that the development of new space tourism companies, which compete with Richard Branson's Virgin Galactic, will help to reduce prices.

The Obama administration is focusing on using private industry to continue space exploration.