In May of 2023, SpaceX launched Falcon 9 on a ten-day private space flight holding four private citizens: Peggy Whitson, John Schoffner, Ali AlQarni, and Rayyanah Barnawi. The Saudis paid roughly $110 million to send Barnawi and AlQarni to space. Peggy Whitson, former astronaut, is the only passenger that did not have to pay to go on the flight. 

The tickets for the private flights cost about $55 million each. The money for the tickets not only pays for their seats in the spacecraft, but also their food, costing around $3,500 per day in space. Each passenger is given a spacesuit before take-off. 

The purpose of this flight was to conduct research and science experiments.  “These missions are very important to us at NASA as we try to open up space, and low Earth orbit especially, to a greater cross section of society,” Ken Bowersox, associate administrator of NASA’s Space Operations, explained about sending missions to space. 

SpaceX launched this flight for research, but that doesn’t mean it’s entirely safe. There’s still many dangers NASA and SpaceX both face with sending people to space. Some of the deadly risks include bodily deterioration, explosions, and space junk, among other dangers to civilians.