I expected this, it's basically a quick way to add revenue from re-usable boosters and Crew Dragon capsules. I will be curious to hear what the price ends up being, they price an F9 launch at $62M [1] where the person buying the launch supplies the payload. If they charge $70M (adding $8M for the use of Crew Dragon) then they would need $10M per passenger to launch at "list" price.
They also say you don't need a "pro" pilot on board since everything is automated but I'd hate to be on one of these where something breaks and the tower has to "talk you down" :-). All in all its going to be really interesting over the next decade to see how this plays out.
The Bigelow deal was in 2012[2] which was only 8 years ago. I'm guessing they are ahead of that timeline, but maybe not.
I predict that when it happens, and it will happen, it will be at least 2 years later than the 2021 date. I don't have any special knowledge but I know that Musk is over-optimistic most of the time.
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[ 2.4 ms ] story [ 20.8 ms ] threadThey also say you don't need a "pro" pilot on board since everything is automated but I'd hate to be on one of these where something breaks and the tower has to "talk you down" :-). All in all its going to be really interesting over the next decade to see how this plays out.
The Bigelow deal was in 2012[2] which was only 8 years ago. I'm guessing they are ahead of that timeline, but maybe not.
[1] https://www.spacex.com/about/capabilities
[2] https://arstechnica.com/science/2012/05/spacex-announces-dea...