But chartering a SpaceX rocket is a much more costly affair. Tickets for the ISS in joint SpaceX Axiom Space missions are reported to run into tens of millions of dollars.

The first fully private mission to the International Space Station blasted off from Florida on Friday with a four-member crew from startup company Axiom Space.

The Crew 3 astronauts will also conduct spacewalks to complete an upgrade of the stations solar panels and will be present for two tourism missions including Japanese visitors aboard a Russian Soyuz spacecraft at the end of the year and the Space X Axiom...

They ll be led by a former NASA astronaut now working for Axiom Space the Houston company that arranged the trip for next January.