by: WESH 2 News
Posted:
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CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. (WESH) – Signs are increasing that one of Hollywood’s biggest stars is blasting off to orbit from a Central Florida spaceport.
Tom Cruise could be climbing aboard a SpaceX rocket in about a year.
A pair of NASA astronauts were the first to tread the made-for-Hollywood walkway leading to the SpaceX Dragon ship.
Now that a profit-making, privately owned space transportation service is established, it’s open to whomever can pay the fare. It seems that first person is Tom Cruise.
Axiom Space, a company that brokers the planned space tourist flights, says four private citizens will launch in October of 2021.
Only one is officially identified: Mike Lopez-Alegria, a former NASA astronaut who’ll now be a sort of space tour guide.
He’ll have three crew mates, and it’s not much of a secret that Tom Cruise could be one of them.
NASA’s administrator tweeted about it on May 5, saying Cruise would be making a film aboard the space station.
A film director and one other person will fly also.
“This is the program evolving in a manner in which it was intended to,” Dale Ketcham, with Space Florida, said.
Commercial space is intended to branch into space tourism, manufacturing and other profitable ventures.
The cost of a flight with SpaceX to the ISS is not public record. Because it’s a private deal made between private citizens and a private company, the cost is unknown.
Tens of thousands of spectators appear whenever people fly into space. Officials believe Tom Cruise taking off from the Space Coast will bring in even more.
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