One of Elon Musk’s ambition is to make space traveling much more accessible to the common man as well as opening the potentials of further exploring the space and maybe colonizing other planets within our solar system and even beyond but for now, the ISS is the stop-point for humans.

Just next year, a number of private space tourists will board the SpaceX Crew Dragon capsule heading to the International Space Station (ISS).

The announcement was made by the organizer of the tourism Axiom Space which stated that a four-person crew for a mission which will be the first-of-its-kind whereby three private citizens will orbit the Earth in the ISS which is about 250 miles above the planet.

According to the report, the names of the crew members will include Canadian investor and philanthropist Mark Path, American entrepreneur Larry Connor, and former Israeli Air Force pilot Eytan Stibbe and the commander of the trip will be the former NASA astronaut Michael López-Alegría.

The trip isn’t cheap at all as further report has it that each individual crew member will pay a huge sum of US$55 million to board the Crew Dragon spacecraft.

Michael Suffredini, president and CEO of Axiom Space, said: “This is just the first of several Axion Space crews whose private missions to the ISS will truly inaugurate an expansive future for humans in space — and make a meaningful difference in the world when they return home.”

The company is now working with each so-called “Axionaut” to design ISS activities that will enable them to fulfill their personal mission goals and “shine a global spotlight on the causes that matter most in the world.”

What’s the trip all about

The four crew members aboard the Crew Dragon spacecraft will stay in the US segment of the ISS for about eight days where they’ll be able to work on their researches as well as philanthropic projects.

Connor in collaboration with Mayo Clinic and the Cleveland Clinic will make a number of researches which is obviously science-related while Pathy will work on the Canadian Space Agency and also the Montreal Children’s Hospital on health-related researches and lastly is Stibbe who’ll conduct scientific experiments for Israeli researchers and entrepreneurs coordinated by the Ramon Foundation and the Israel Space Agency at the Ministry of Science & Technology, and also undertake educational activities for Israeli children and educators.

Going to the space costs a lot of cash and despite these trio not being the first private citizens to ever do so, they are the first to use a commercially built spacecraft.

The Ax-1 mission’s first launch opportunity is in January 2022, subject to final approval from NASA and its international partners.

This won’t be the last of such trip as Axiom Space will be flying up two private missions every year to the ISS whereby those who can afford it can have the opportunity of seeing the planet from the space.

Axiom Space is aiming to fly up to two private missions a year to the space station, giving the super-rich a novel way of using up some of their loose change.