Vast signs deal with SpaceX for two ISS tourist missions
Depending on whether it gets NASA contractual approval, the space station startup Vast has now signed a deal with SpaceX for flying two tourist missions to ISS.
These two missions expand Vast’s launch manifest with SpaceX, which includes the company’s Falcon 9 rocket delivering Haven-1 to low-Earth orbit and a subsequent Dragon mission to fly crew to the commercial space station. Haven-1 will also be supported by Starlink laser-based high-speed internet.
Axiom, which has flown three tourist missions to ISS and has a fourth planned, is also bidding for the next two tourist slots NASA has made available for ISS in the coming years. It is not clear who will get those slots. Axiom has the advantage it has done it before, but the rumors that it lost money on those flights and now has a cash shortage work against it. Vast hasn’t yet flown, but it is moving fast to fly and occupy Haven-1 next year. NASA might want to give it at least one of those slots to balance the scales.
Hat tip to BtB’s stringer Jay.
On Christmas Eve 1968 three Americans became the first humans to visit another world. What they did to celebrate was unexpected and profound, and will be remembered throughout all human history. Genesis: the Story of Apollo 8, Robert Zimmerman's classic history of humanity's first journey to another world, tells that story, and it is now available as both an ebook and an audiobook, both with a foreword by Valerie Anders and a new introduction by Robert Zimmerman.
The print edition can be purchased at Amazon. from any other book seller, or direct from my ebook publisher, ebookit.
The ebook is available everywhere for $5.99 (before discount) at amazon, or direct from my ebook publisher, ebookit. If you buy it from ebookit you don't support the big tech companies and the author gets a bigger cut much sooner.
The audiobook is also available at all these vendors, and is also free with a 30-day trial membership to Audible.
"Not simply about one mission, [Genesis] is also the history of America's quest for the moon... Zimmerman has done a masterful job of tying disparate events together into a solid account of one of America's greatest human triumphs."--San Antonio Express-News
Depending on whether it gets NASA contractual approval, the space station startup Vast has now signed a deal with SpaceX for flying two tourist missions to ISS.
These two missions expand Vast’s launch manifest with SpaceX, which includes the company’s Falcon 9 rocket delivering Haven-1 to low-Earth orbit and a subsequent Dragon mission to fly crew to the commercial space station. Haven-1 will also be supported by Starlink laser-based high-speed internet.
Axiom, which has flown three tourist missions to ISS and has a fourth planned, is also bidding for the next two tourist slots NASA has made available for ISS in the coming years. It is not clear who will get those slots. Axiom has the advantage it has done it before, but the rumors that it lost money on those flights and now has a cash shortage work against it. Vast hasn’t yet flown, but it is moving fast to fly and occupy Haven-1 next year. NASA might want to give it at least one of those slots to balance the scales.
Hat tip to BtB’s stringer Jay.
On Christmas Eve 1968 three Americans became the first humans to visit another world. What they did to celebrate was unexpected and profound, and will be remembered throughout all human history. Genesis: the Story of Apollo 8, Robert Zimmerman's classic history of humanity's first journey to another world, tells that story, and it is now available as both an ebook and an audiobook, both with a foreword by Valerie Anders and a new introduction by Robert Zimmerman.
The print edition can be purchased at Amazon. from any other book seller, or direct from my ebook publisher, ebookit. The ebook is available everywhere for $5.99 (before discount) at amazon, or direct from my ebook publisher, ebookit. If you buy it from ebookit you don't support the big tech companies and the author gets a bigger cut much sooner.
The audiobook is also available at all these vendors, and is also free with a 30-day trial membership to Audible.
"Not simply about one mission, [Genesis] is also the history of America's quest for the moon... Zimmerman has done a masterful job of tying disparate events together into a solid account of one of America's greatest human triumphs."--San Antonio Express-News
I’m pretty sure Axiom will get at least one of the slots. For flight five they’ve partnered with the UK Space Agency for an all-British spaceflight. British astronaut Tim Peake is coming out of retirement to command the mission. It’s the sort of mission — partnering with foreign space agencies — that NASA and their overseers in Washington like.
Axiom simply isn’t charging enough for these types of missions. They’re reportedly paying SpaceX $150 million for the flight and millions more to NASA in hosting fees but are only charging $55 million per ticket. That’s not enough margin on three tickets per flight to make a profit.
ESA is making far more money on these flights than Axiom is. They inserted themselves between Axiom and the European governments making these deals, in some cases even after the deals were already made. For example Sweden reportedly paid ESA over $100 million to fly an astronaut on Axiom 4 after the deal with Axiom had already been announced. ESA then paid Axiom their $55 million fee and pocketed the rest. Sweden was unhappy with that but agreed to it in the name of “European unity.”
I think Axiom set their ticket price as low as they could to attract individual buyers, but the institutional market price is obviously higher than that. Axiom should claw some of that money back from the middleman, IMO.
If one removes the “million” from the prices, looking at it as loss-leader until they get their own destination seems more reasonable. Selling something for $55 when it costs you $150, now, but is expected to be “free” in a few years is not unreasonable. Presumably there will be internal line-items moving money from “launch price” to “accommodation costs”, but externally it’s all the same company.
It’s the extra zeroes that are scary. Hopefully they can manage.
“Axiom has the advantage it has done it before, but the rumors that it lost money on those flights and now has a cash shortage work against it.”
If Vast or Axiom charge more this time than Axiom did the previous times, then we may have our answer as to whether Axiom lost money on those previous flights.