What Happened To Proposed SpaceX Orbital Tourism Flights?

[Rocket Science]

A few years back Elon spoke of orbital tourism flights for private individuals. The plan was the use refurbished Dragons from NASA missions for the trips to orbit and back. Apart from the proposed loop around the Moon, nothing that I can find has been mentioned unless I've missed it which is entirely possible...

[guckyfan]

A few years back Elon spoke of orbital tourism flights for private individuals. The plan was the use refurbished Dragons from NASA missions for the trips to orbit and back. Apart from the proposed loop around the Moon, nothing that I can find has been mentioned unless I've missed it which is entirely possible...

I am pretty sure that when Elon Musk announced the lunar flyby he also mentioned that there is interest in LEO flights. But nothing concrete. I don't see it as a major revenue flow for SpaceX. It does help to keep up the momentum and interest which is important too.

[Basto]

Would probably help to actually get the D2 operational for the primary customer.

[yg1968]

SpaceX has been offering private crewed services since 2013 and the link on their webpage for these services is easy to find:

http://www.spacex.com/news/2013/05/19/spacex-crew-program

[whitelancer64]

It would help if there were a destination for tourists to go to. Fortunately, that should be changing in 2020.

[Rocket Science]

SpaceX has been offering private crewed services since 2013 and the link on their webpage for these services is easy to find:

http://www.spacex.com/news/2013/05/19/spacex-crew-program

I appreciate the link yg however that page doesn't really address an individual purchasing a trip similar to an airline ticket on a scenic flight. The webpage states "commercial customers seeking to transport astronauts to alternate LEO destinations". What about a couple of orbits or so and then return? The page is fours years old and perhaps could use an update to reflect the company state of play today in 2017...

[Lars-J]

SpaceX has been offering private crewed services since 2013 and the link on their webpage for these services is easy to find:

http://www.spacex.com/news/2013/05/19/spacex-crew-program

I appreciate the link yg however that page doesn't really address an individual purchasing a trip similar to an airline ticket on a scenic flight. The webpage states "commercial customers seeking to transport astronauts to alternate LEO destinations". What about a couple of orbits or so and then return? The page is fours years old and perhaps could use an update to reflect the company state of play today in 2017...

What did you expect, an online booking form? If you are interested, reach out to SpaceX directly. Just like the people doing the lunar flyby did.

[Rocket Science]

SpaceX has been offering private crewed services since 2013 and the link on their webpage for these services is easy to find:

http://www.spacex.com/news/2013/05/19/spacex-crew-program

I appreciate the link yg however that page doesn't really address an individual purchasing a trip similar to an airline ticket on a scenic flight. The webpage states "commercial customers seeking to transport astronauts to alternate LEO destinations". What about a couple of orbits or so and then return? The page is fours years old and perhaps could use an update to reflect the company state of play today in 2017...

What did you expect, an online booking form? If you are interested, reach out to SpaceX directly. Just like the people doing the lunar flyby did.

I don't have the funds at this time...

[yg1968]

SpaceX has been offering private crewed services since 2013 and the link on their webpage for these services is easy to find:

http://www.spacex.com/news/2013/05/19/spacex-crew-program

I appreciate the link yg however that page doesn't really address an individual purchasing a trip similar to an airline ticket on a scenic flight. The webpage states "commercial customers seeking to transport astronauts to alternate LEO destinations". What about a couple of orbits or so and then return? The page is fours years old and perhaps could use an update to reflect the company state of play today in 2017...

I got to that link through their commercial capabilities & services page (which has been recently updated) which is a page for prospective customers:

SpaceX offers competitive pricing for its Falcon 9 and Falcon Heavy launch services. Modest discounts are available, for contractually committed, multi-launch purchases. SpaceX can also offer crew transportation services to commercial customers seeking to transport astronauts to alternate LEO destinations.

http://www.spacex.com/about/capabilities

I think that tells us that they are still commited to private spaceflight.

[Rocket Science]

I don't doubt their commitment yg, I'm just looking for an update similar to this article on BO which states: "Bezos said the company planned to give first access on those orbital space trips to customers who had already purchased suborbital trips on New Shepard" as an example...
https://www.space.com/36267-blue-origin-space-capsule-interior-sneak-peek.html

[Ludus]

Once they have D2 flying regularly I suspect there will be some private missions. The lunar flyby was a a pretty special case. It's an opportunity to buy a place in history and get lots of global publicity. The second and third time not so much. Once SpaceX passenger launches to the ISS are common, there won't be so much attention paid to private astronauts in LEO.

I think SpaceX did try to stir up interest from foreign governments and private citizens without getting many deposits. They had a similar experience with F1 that lots of people said it was a great idea until it came time to sign contracts and write checks then things got a lot quieter.

[Rocket Science]

Once they have D2 flying regularly I suspect there will be some private missions. The lunar flyby was a a pretty special case. It's an opportunity to buy a place in history and get lots of global publicity. The second and third time not so much. Once SpaceX passenger launches to the ISS are common, there won't be so much attention paid to private astronauts in LEO.

I think SpaceX did try to stir up interest from foreign governments and private citizens without getting many deposits. They had a similar experience with F1 that lots of people said it was a great idea until it came time to sign contracts and write checks then things got a lot quieter.

You raise an interesting point, is there really a market for orbital tourism without a stay at a station?

[Bynaus]

Once they have D2 flying regularly I suspect there will be some private missions. The lunar flyby was a a pretty special case. It's an opportunity to buy a place in history and get lots of global publicity. The second and third time not so much. Once SpaceX passenger launches to the ISS are common, there won't be so much attention paid to private astronauts in LEO.

I think SpaceX did try to stir up interest from foreign governments and private citizens without getting many deposits. They had a similar experience with F1 that lots of people said it was a great idea until it came time to sign contracts and write checks then things got a lot quieter.

You raise an interesting point, is there really a market for orbital tourism without a stay at a station?

There's a Mr Bigelow outside and he wants to talk to you about your question.

[Rocket Science]

Once they have D2 flying regularly I suspect there will be some private missions. The lunar flyby was a a pretty special case. It's an opportunity to buy a place in history and get lots of global publicity. The second and third time not so much. Once SpaceX passenger launches to the ISS are common, there won't be so much attention paid to private astronauts in LEO.

I think SpaceX did try to stir up interest from foreign governments and private citizens without getting many deposits. They had a similar experience with F1 that lots of people said it was a great idea until it came time to sign contracts and write checks then things got a lot quieter.

You raise an interesting point, is there really a market for orbital tourism without a stay at a station?

There's a Mr Bigelow outside and he wants to talk to you about your question.

Better to refer him to Mr. Trump, perhaps they could create the "first space hotel" together... Hilton talked about it for decades...
https://theoutline.com/post/1073/hilton-never-ending-quest-to-build-a-hotel-in-space

[neoforce]

Gwynne Shotwell was on the space show back on 6/22. Around 20:45 she spoke about private flights: "There is a larger than I would have anticipated market for private passengers."

As said by others here, she also emphasized that they are first focused on their prime paying customer (NASA) and getting commercial crew going. Then they can expand to other orbital markets.

Listen to the show at http://www.thespaceshow.com/show/22-jun-2017/broadcast-2934-ms.-gwynne-shotwell

A great time stamp index of the show provided here on NSF forums at http://forum.nasaspaceflight.com/index.php?topic=43197.msg1692769#msg1692769

[su27k]

Yeah, it looks like they are keeping the private flight plans under wraps for now. We only heard about the lunar flight because SLS/Orion was trying to one up them.

[gospacex]

I think there is a possibility that circumlunal flight announcement was also used by Musk as a signal to NASA that if they try to play bureaucracy game of making process of certifying crewed Dragon flights to ISS increasingly painful to SpaceX, an entirely different type of crewed Dragon flights would happen anyway, making NASA look silly.

[Rocket Science]

Making NASA look silly.

That ship sailed years ago...

[okan170]

Making NASA look silly.

That ship sailed years ago...

Well for some   Obviously silly enough to pay them to develop the spacecraft- glad to see that every thread can still dissolve into NASA bashing.

[gospacex]

Making NASA look silly.

That ship sailed years ago...

To be honest, only "manned" part of NASA looks... let's say "not so good".
The part which does space telescopes and unmanned missions is impressive (JWST budget saga being a notable exception).

[okan170]

Making NASA look silly.

That ship sailed years ago...

To be honest, only "manned" part of NASA looks... let's say "not so good".
The part which does space telescopes and unmanned missions is impressive (JWST budget saga being a notable exception).

I don't know- they're flying astronauts right now with their partners.  This "SpaceX makes everyone look silly", "SpaceX sending a message to NASA to not make things difficult" and "They were afraid SLS would steal their thunder" talk is ridiculous.  (If anything, being a supplier trying to embarrass your primary customer publicly would usually go poorly for anyone but Musk)

[gospacex]

Making NASA look silly.

That ship sailed years ago...

To be honest, only "manned" part of NASA looks... let's say "not so good".
The part which does space telescopes and unmanned missions is impressive (JWST budget saga being a notable exception).

I don't know- they're flying astronauts right now with their partners.

After having to stop using the most expensive launch vehicle in history, NASA manned program now has no option but to resort to using a spacecraft made by "partners" who are political enemies of the West in general and US in particular, whose political leadership routinely murder journalists and opposition politicians and invade neighboring countries? Good job at "not looking silly".

But no worries, NASA manned program is well on the way of making a new most expensive launch vehicle in history! It should be ready by 2014! Oops...

I know that you are a SLS fanboi, but try to see some facts.

[Rocket Science]

To be fair NASA's robotic and probe exploration are second to none and the ISS is an engineering marvel and a model example of international political cooperation....

[Confusador]

Making NASA look silly.

That ship sailed years ago...

To be honest, only "manned" part of NASA looks... let's say "not so good".
The part which does space telescopes and unmanned missions is impressive (JWST budget saga being a notable exception).

I don't know- they're flying astronauts right now with their partners.

After having to stop using the most expensive launch vehicle in history, NASA manned program now has no option but to resort to using a spacecraft made by "partners" who are political enemies of the West in general and US in particular, whose political leadership routinely murder journalists and opposition politicians and invade neighboring countries? Good job at "not looking silly".

But no worries, NASA manned program is well on the way of making a new most expensive launch vehicle in history! It should be ready by 2014! Oops...

I know that you are a SLS fanboi, but try to see some facts.

If you want facts, the "manned" part of NASA is what contracted for Dragon and Starliner; I'm not sure why you think those vehicles look "not so good".  They've got their fingers in many pots, some are better than others, but that's the nature of risk taking.  If they never make a bad decision, they're doing it wrong.

[Rocket Science]

Could we please bring the discussion back to SpaceX orbital tourism...