The trip has cost each of the three countries more than $55 million, which is the approximate cost per person for the trip. This is the third trip hosted by Houston company Axiom Space, along with NASA and SpaceX. Russia has been welcoming paying visitors to the space station for over 20 years, while NASA only started doing so two years ago.
Turkey’s Alper Gezeravci, a former fighter pilot and captain for Turkish Airlines, became the country’s first person to fly a rocket into space. He noted that Turkey has just celebrated its 100th anniversary, and up until now, the people’s view of the sky has been limited to “what can be seen with the naked eye.” He said, “This mission is finally beginning. This is the beginning of our next 100 years.”
Markus Vandt of Sweden, a former fighter pilot and test pilot for Swedish Airlines who was selected as a reserve astronaut by the European Space Agency in 2022, and Colonel Walter Villaday of the Italian Air Force, who flew to the edge of space last summer with Virgin Galactic, also took part in the trip.
Source: www.nbcnews.com
