space tourism would be really tedious

Want to be a space tourist? Here are 6 things to consider first

The industry of space tourism could exist in the future. Image:  Unsplash/NASA

.chakra .wef-1c7l3mo{-webkit-transition:all 0.15s ease-out;transition:all 0.15s ease-out;cursor:pointer;-webkit-text-decoration:none;text-decoration:none;outline:none;color:inherit;}.chakra .wef-1c7l3mo:hover,.chakra .wef-1c7l3mo[data-hover]{-webkit-text-decoration:underline;text-decoration:underline;}.chakra .wef-1c7l3mo:focus,.chakra .wef-1c7l3mo[data-focus]{box-shadow:0 0 0 3px rgba(168,203,251,0.5);} Steven Freeland

.chakra .wef-9dduvl{margin-top:16px;margin-bottom:16px;line-height:1.388;font-size:1.25rem;}@media screen and (min-width:56.5rem){.chakra .wef-9dduvl{font-size:1.125rem;}} Explore and monitor how .chakra .wef-15eoq1r{margin-top:16px;margin-bottom:16px;line-height:1.388;font-size:1.25rem;color:#F7DB5E;}@media screen and (min-width:56.5rem){.chakra .wef-15eoq1r{font-size:1.125rem;}} Space is affecting economies, industries and global issues

.chakra .wef-1nk5u5d{margin-top:16px;margin-bottom:16px;line-height:1.388;color:#2846F8;font-size:1.25rem;}@media screen and (min-width:56.5rem){.chakra .wef-1nk5u5d{font-size:1.125rem;}} Get involved with our crowdsourced digital platform to deliver impact at scale

Stay up to date:.

• In July 2021, entrepreneur Sir Richard Branson and Amazon founder Jeff Bezos went up into space, accompanied by fellow passengers.
• These trips created vast amounts of media coverage and brand recognition for Branson’s Virgin Galactic and Bezos’ Blue Origin.
• This could indicate that a commercial space tourism industry is on the horizon.
• Before space trips become commercially available, important factors such as environmental and safety laws need to be considered.

It’s been a momentous month for space-faring billionaires. On July 11, British entrepreneur Sir Richard Branson’s Unity “rocket-plane” flew him and five fellow passengers about 85 kilometres above Earth. And this week, Amazon founder Jeff Bezos’ New Shepard capsule reached an altitude of 106km , carrying Bezos, his brother, and the oldest and youngest people ever to reach such a height. Passengers on both flights experienced several minutes of weightlessness and took in breathtaking views of our beautiful and fragile Earth.

Both flights created an avalanche of media coverage and brand recognition for Branson’s Virgin Galactic and Bezos’s Blue Origin. There is renewed anticipation of a lucrative commercial space tourism industry that could eventually see thousands of paying passengers journey into space (or not quite into space, depending on your preferred level of pedantry).

This year marks 60 years since Soviet cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin became the first human in space. Since then, almost 600 trained astronauts have gone into outer space, but very few people have become space tourists.

The first, US engineer Dennis Tito, paid a reported US$20 million to spend six days orbiting Earth in the Russian section of the International Space Station in April 2001, after three months’ training at Russia’s Star City complex. He was followed by a handful of other very wealthy “orbital tourists”, most recently Cirque de Soleil founder Guy Laliberté in 2009, whose ticket reportedly cost US$35 million.

Unlike their predecessors, Branson’s and Bezos’ flights were suborbital – they didn’t reach the velocity needed to orbit Earth. Bezos’s entire flight lasted just over 10 minutes. Suborbital flights are much less technically complex, and in theory cheaper (although one seat on the New Shepard flight was auctioned for US$28 million ).

While they might quibble over billionaire bragging rights, there’s no denying that suborbital “space” flights have the potential to be less eye-wateringly expensive than going into orbital outer space and beyond.

But before you sign up – assuming you’re lucky enough to afford it – here are a few things to consider.

Where does space start, anyway?

Have you read, how many space launches does it take to have a serious climate impact, from space squid to saliva: what's inside nasa's cargo missions and why, the big space clean-up - and why it matters.

Despite assertions to the contrary , there is no legal definition of “outer space”, and thus no official boundary where airspace ends and outer space begins. In the past, the International Aeronautical Federation has looked to the von Karman line , but this does not coincide with the boundary of any of the atmosphere’s scientifically defined layers, and the UN Committee on the Peaceful Uses of Outer Space , which deals with such issues, has not yet resolved the question.

Conveniently for Branson, 80km has been proposed by some experts as an appropriate boundary.

Outer space is undeniably influenced by Earthly geopolitics. Essentially, the larger space-faring countries see no need to legally define a boundary that would clearly demarcate the upper limits of their sovereignty.

Will you be an ‘astronaut’?

The 1967 UN Outer Space Treaty designates astronauts as “envoys of (hu)mankind in outer space”. Certainly, that seemed to be the case as the world watched the historic Apollo 11 Moon landing and prayed for a safe return of the stricken Apollo 13 capsule. However, the 1968 UN Rescue Agreement refers to “personnel of a spacecraft”, which may imply not everyone on board should be considered a fully fledged astronaut.

Of course, these legal niceties won’t deter space tourism companies from awarding “astronaut wings” to their passengers.

What laws apply when things go wrong?

The 1986 Challenger and 2003 Columbia shuttle disasters are stark reminders of the dangers of space travel. Human space travel has always involved determining acceptable levels of risk for trained astronauts. But commercial space tourism is different to state-sponsored space programs, and will need the highest possible safety standards.

Commercial space travel will also require a system of responsibility and liability, for cases in which a space tourist suffers injury, loss or damage.

Space tourists (or their families) can’t claim for compensation under the 1972 UN Liability Convention which, in terms of space, applies only to collisions between space objects such as satellites and space debris. While there may be scope to take legal action under national laws, it is likely space tourists will be asked to sign carefully worded waivers of liability.

The same is probably true of international air law , which applies to “aircraft” — a designation space tourism operators will understandably be keen to avoid.

Ultimately, we may need to develop a system of “aerospace law” to govern these suborbital flights as well as “transorbital” transport such as the keenly envisaged flights that might one day take passengers from Sydney to London in just a few hours.

What activities should be allowed in space?

The advent of space tourism will give rise to some interesting ethical questions. Should there be advertising billboards in space? What about casinos, or brothels? On what legal basis should these things be restricted?

How does tourism fit with the underlying philosophy of space law: that the exploration and use of outer space “shall be carried out for the benefit and in the interests of all countries”?

Will space tourism harm the environment?

Space tourism will inevitably put pressure on Earth’s environment – there are claims that space vehicles may one day become the world’s biggest source of carbon dioxide emissions. We will need to manage space traffic carefully to avoid disastrous collisions and steer clear of space debris .

If tourists go to the Moon, they may cause pollution or damage the heritage of earlier exploration, such as Neil Armstrong’s footprints .

Will tourism workers have to live in space?

If space tourism does become truly widespread, it will need infrastructure and perhaps even staff. People may end up living permanently in space settlements, perhaps having children who will be born as “space citizens”. What legal rights would someone have if they were born at a Moon base? Would they be subject to terrestrial laws, or some version of current international legal rules for outer space?

The World Economic Forum was the first to draw the world’s attention to the Fourth Industrial Revolution, the current period of unprecedented change driven by rapid technological advances. Policies, norms and regulations have not been able to keep up with the pace of innovation, creating a growing need to fill this gap.

The Forum established the Centre for the Fourth Industrial Revolution Network in 2017 to ensure that new and emerging technologies will help—not harm—humanity in the future. Headquartered in San Francisco, the network launched centres in China, India and Japan in 2018 and is rapidly establishing locally-run Affiliate Centres in many countries around the world.

The global network is working closely with partners from government, business, academia and civil society to co-design and pilot agile frameworks for governing new and emerging technologies, including artificial intelligence (AI) , autonomous vehicles , blockchain , data policy , digital trade , drones , internet of things (IoT) , precision medicine and environmental innovations .

Learn more about the groundbreaking work that the Centre for the Fourth Industrial Revolution Network is doing to prepare us for the future.

Want to help us shape the Fourth Industrial Revolution? Contact us to find out how you can become a member or partner.

These are obviously questions for the future. But given the excitement generated by the brief journeys of a couple of wealthy entrepreneurs, we should start contemplating them now. Outer space is the new frontier, but it is not — and must not — be a lawless one.

Don't miss any update on this topic

Create a free account and access your personalized content collection with our latest publications and analyses.

License and Republishing

World Economic Forum articles may be republished in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International Public License, and in accordance with our Terms of Use.

The views expressed in this article are those of the author alone and not the World Economic Forum.

The Agenda .chakra .wef-n7bacu{margin-top:16px;margin-bottom:16px;line-height:1.388;font-weight:400;} Weekly

A weekly update of the most important issues driving the global agenda

Space tourism may be taking off, but critics not taken with its aims

Some question if race to put more people in space justified given current problems on earth.

William Shatner’s space flight renews debate over space tourism

Social sharing.

A handful of billionaire-backed ventures are proving that space tourism could be a part of our future, but some critics say those resources would be better directed toward solving the problems we face on Earth today.

"We need some of the world's greatest brains and minds fixed on trying to repair this planet, not trying to find the next place to go and live," as Prince William put it this week , summing up a less-than-laudatory attitude among critics watching the tourism-minded space race of our times unfold.

Since the summer, space tourism companies have taken passengers on brief journeys above the Earth and garnered a lot of attention for doing so — in part because of the people they took with them.

Rivals ride rockets in same month

Billionaire Jeff Bezos went to space in July , along with three other passengers, on a Blue Origin spacecraft. The company sent four more people to space this past Wednesday — including William Shatner , best known for playing Star Trek 's Capt. James Kirk.

"What you have given me is the most profound experience," Shatner told Bezos after his ride to space.

And yet for all the coverage that Bezos has received, he wasn't even the first billionaire to go to space this year — Richard Branson got there first , on a Virgin Galactic flight that carried six passengers, nine days before his Blue Origin competitors.

"The whole thing, it was just magical," Branson said after the flight.

What about the planet?

But not everyone is applauding. Ryan Katz-Rosene, an associate professor at the University of Ottawa's School of Political Studies, said these recent space tourism efforts and the competition to claim achievement from them are "completely tone-deaf to the realities of the sustainability challenges" the planet is facing.

"I don't think we should be spending so much focus and effort and attention and money into private space travel," he said.

Yet Philip Metzger, a planetary physicist at the University of Central Florida, says this kind of space tourism could end up driving support for the problems at home. Astronauts and the like often say the experience of seeing the Earth from above left them with a renewed appreciation for environmentalism.

Metzger predicts that having more people see the Earth from above will drive a greater marshalling of "resources and talents towards protecting the Earth."

WATCH | When Shatner really went to space:  

The science behind William Shatner’s space trip

Possible benefits.

Chris Hadfield, the retired Canadian astronaut, sees what Prince William and like-minded critics are getting at — acknowledging there's some justification for their concerns about the problems on Earth.

But he said the push to explore is what inspires the discovery of new ideas and new technologies — including some of the satellite tools we now use to measure and observe the parts of our planet and the problems it faces.

• Q&A Why sending William Shatner to space was 'a marketing victory' for Jeff Bezos
• Lights, camera... liftoff! Russia launches film crew into space
• Rocket launches could be affecting our ozone layer, say experts

"That technology doesn't just instantaneously appear," said Hadfield. "You have to inspire people, they have to develop it."

As for the future of a broader world of space travel, Hadfield said "it opens up so much opportunity and I think that's the part that's worth focusing on."

With files from The Associated Press, Reuters, and the CBC's Andrew Chang and Lauren Pelley

Related Stories

• Share full article

Advertisement

Supported by

The Future of Space Tourism Is Now. Well, Not Quite.

From zero-pressure balloon trips to astronaut boot camps, reservations for getting off the planet — or pretending to — are skyrocketing. The prices, however, are still out of this world.

By Debra Kamin

Ilida Alvarez has dreamed of traveling to space since she was a child. But Ms. Alvarez, a legal-mediation firm owner, is afraid of flying, and she isn’t a billionaire — two facts that she was sure, until just a few weeks ago, would keep her fantasy as out of reach as the stars. She was wrong.

Ms. Alvarez, 46, and her husband, Rafael Landestoy, recently booked a flight on a 10-person pressurized capsule that — attached to a massive helium-filled balloon — will gently float to 100,000 feet while passengers sip champagne and recline in ergonomic chairs. The reservation required a $500 deposit; the flight itself will cost $50,000 and last six to 12 hours.

“I feel like it was tailor-made for the chickens like me who don’t want to get on a rocket,” said Ms. Alvarez, whose flight, organized by a company called World View , is scheduled to depart from the Grand Canyon in 2024.

Less than a year after Jeff Bezos and Richard Branson kicked off a commercial space race by blasting into the upper atmosphere within weeks of each other last summer, the global space tourism market is skyrocketing, with dozens of companies now offering reservations for everything from zero-pressure balloon trips to astronaut boot camps and simulated zero-gravity flights. But don’t don your spacesuit just yet. While the financial services company UBS estimates the space travel market will be worth $3 billion by 2030, the Federal Aviation Administration has yet to approve most out-of-this-world trips, and construction has not started on the first space hotel. And while access and options — not to mention launchpads — are burgeoning, space tourism remains astronomically expensive for most.

First, what counts as space travel?

Sixty miles (about 100 kilometers) above our heads lies the Kármán line, the widely accepted aeronautical boundary of the earth’s atmosphere. It’s the boundary used by the Féderátion Aéronautique Internationale, which certifies and controls global astronautical records. But many organizations in the United States, including the F.A.A. and NASA, define everything above 50 miles to be space.

Much of the attention has been focused on a trio of billionaire-led rocket companies: Mr. Bezos’ Blue Origin , whose passengers have included William Shatner; Mr. Branson’s Virgin Galactic , where tickets for a suborbital spaceflight start at $450,000; and Elon Musk’s SpaceX , which in September launched an all-civilian spaceflight, with no trained astronauts on board. Mr. Branson’s inaugural Virgin Galactic flight in 2021 reached about 53 miles, while Blue Origin flies above the 62-mile mark. Both are eclipsed by SpaceX, whose rockets charge far deeper in to the cosmos, reaching more than 120 miles above Earth.

Balloons, like those operated by World View, don’t go nearly as high. But even at their maximum altitude of 18 or 19 miles, operators say they float high enough to show travelers the curvature of the planet, and give them a chance to experience the overview effect — an intense perspective shift that many astronauts say kicks in when you view Earth from above.

Now, how to get there …

Blue Origin and Virgin Galactic, which are both licensed for passenger space travel by the F.A.A., are open for ticket sales. (Blue Origin remains mum on pricing.) Both companies currently have hundreds or even thousands of earthlings on their wait lists for a whirl to the edge of space. SpaceX charges tens of millions of dollars for its further-reaching flights and is building a new facility in Texas that is currently under F.A.A. review.

Craig Curran is a major space enthusiast — he’s held a reserved seat on a Virgin Galactic flight since 2011 — and the owner of Deprez Travel in Rochester, N.Y. The travel agency has a special space travel arm, Galactic Experiences by Deprez , through which Mr. Curran sells everything from rocket launch tickets to astronaut training.

Sales in the space tourism space, Mr. Curran acknowledges, “are reasonably difficult to make,” and mostly come from peer-to-peer networking. “You can imagine that people who spend $450,000 to go to space probably operate in circles that are not the same as yours and mine,” he said.

Some of Mr. Curran’s most popular offerings include flights where you can experience the same stomach-dropping feeling of zero gravity that astronauts feel in space, which he arranges for clients via chartered, specialized Boeing 727s that are flown in parabolic arcs to mimic being in space. Operators including Zero G also offer the service; the cost is around $8,200.

You can almost count the number of completed space tourist launches on one hand — Blue Origin has had four; SpaceX, two. Virgin Galactic, meanwhile, on Thursday announced the launch of its commercial passenger service, previously scheduled for late 2022, was delayed until early 2023. Many of those on waiting lists are biding their time before blastoff by signing up for training. Axiom Space, which contracts with SpaceX, currently offers NASA-partnered training at Houston’s Johnson Space Center. Virgin Galactic, which already offers a “customized Future Astronaut Readiness program” at its Spaceport America facility in New Mexico, is also partnering with NASA to build a training program for private astronauts.

Would-be space tourists should not expect the rigor that NASA astronauts face. Training for Virgin Galactic’s three-hour trips is included in the cost of a ticket and lasts a handful of days; it includes pilot briefings and being “fitted for your bespoke Under Armour spacesuit and boots,” according to its website.

Not ready for a rocket? Balloon rides offer a less hair-raising celestial experience.

“We go to space at 12 miles an hour, which means that it’s very smooth and very gentle. You’re not rocketing away from earth,” said Jane Poynter, a co-founder and co-chief executive of Space Perspective , which is readying its own touristic balloon spaceship, Spaceship Neptune. If all goes according to plan, voyages are scheduled to begin departing from Florida in 2024, at a cost of $125,000 per person. That’s a fraction of the price tag for Blue Origin and Virgin Galactic, but still more than double the average annual salary of an American worker.

Neither Space Perspective nor World View has the required approval yet from the F.A.A. to operate flights.

Unique implications

Whether a capsule or a rocket is your transport, the travel insurance company battleface launched a civilian space insurance plan in late 2021, a direct response, said chief executive Sasha Gainullin, to an increase in space tourism interest and infrastructure. Benefits include accidental death and permanent disablement in space and are valid for spaceflights on operators like SpaceX, Blue Origin and Virgin Galactic, as well as on stratospheric balloon rides. They’ve had many inquiries, Mr. Gainullin said, but no purchases just yet.

“Right now it’s such high-net-worth individuals who are traveling to space, so they probably don’t need insurance,” he said. “But for quote-unquote regular travelers, I think we’ll see some takeups soon.”

And as the industry grows, so perhaps will space travel’s impact on the environment. Not only do rocket launches have immense carbon footprints, even some stratospheric balloon flights have potentially significant implications: World View’s balloons are powered by thousands of cubic meters of helium, which is a limited resource . But Ted Parson, a professor of environmental law at the University of California, Los Angeles, said that space travel’s environmental impact is still dwarfed by civil aviation. And because space travel is ultra-niche, he believes it’s likely to stay that way.

“Despite extensive projections, space tourism is likely to remain a tiny fraction of commercial space exploration,” he said. “It reminds me of tourism on Mt. Everest. It’s the indulgence of very rich people seeking a transcendent, once-in-a-lifetime experience, and the local environmental burden is intense.”

Stay a while?

In the future, space enthusiasts insist, travelers won’t be traveling to space just for the ride. They’ll want to stay a while. Orbital Assembly Corporation, a manufacturing company whose goal is to colonize space, is currently building the world’s first space hotels — two ring-shaped properties that will orbit Earth, called Pioneer Station and Voyager Station. The company, quite optimistically, projects an opening date of 2025 for Pioneer Station, with a capacity of 28 guests. The design for the larger Voyager Station , which they say will open in 2027, promises villas and suites, as well as a gym, restaurant and bar. Both provide the ultimate luxury: simulated gravity. Axiom Space , a space infrastructure company, is currently building the world’s first private space station; plans include Philippe Starck-designed accommodations for travelers to spend the night.

Joshua Bush, chief executive of travel agency Avenue Two Travel , has sold a handful of seats on upcoming Virgin Galactic flights to customers. The market for space travel (and the sky-high prices that come with it), he believes, will evolve much like civilian air travel did.

“In the beginning of the 20th century, only very affluent people could afford to fly,” he said. “Just as we have Spirit and Southwest Airlines today, there will be some sort of equivalent of that in space travel, too. Hopefully within my lifetime.”

52 Places for a Changed World

The 2022 list highlights places around the globe where travelers can be part of the solution.

Follow New York Times Travel on Instagram , Twitter and Facebook . And sign up for our weekly Travel Dispatch newsletter to receive expert tips on traveling smarter and inspiration for your next vacation. Dreaming up a future getaway or just armchair traveling? Check out our 52 Places for a Changed World for 2022.

What’s Up in Space and Astronomy

Keep track of things going on in our solar system and all around the universe..

Never miss an eclipse, a meteor shower, a rocket launch or any other 2024 event  that’s out of this world with  our space and astronomy calendar .

A celestial image, an Impressionistic swirl of color in the center of the Milky Way, represents a first step toward understanding the role of magnetic fields  in the cycle of stellar death and rebirth.

Scientists may have discovered a major flaw in their understanding of dark energy, a mysterious cosmic force . That could be good news for the fate of the universe.

A new set of computer simulations, which take into account the effects of stars moving past our solar system, has effectively made it harder to predict Earth’s future and reconstruct its past.

Dante Lauretta, the planetary scientist who led the OSIRIS-REx mission to retrieve a handful of space dust , discusses his next final frontier.

Is Pluto a planet? And what is a planet, anyway? Test your knowledge here .

• Newsletters

Site search

• Israel-Hamas war
• Home Planet
• 2024 election
• Supreme Court
• TikTok’s fate
• All explainers
• Future Perfect

Filed under:

How bad is space tourism for the environment? And other space travel questions, answered.

Six questions to consider before launching yourself into space.

Share this story

• Share this on Facebook
• Share this on Twitter
• Share this on Reddit
• Share All sharing options

Share All sharing options for: How bad is space tourism for the environment? And other space travel questions, answered.

For many, the rise of commercial space tourism is a vulgar display of wealth and power . Amid several global crises, including climate change and a pandemic, billionaires are spending their cash on launching themselves into space for fun. When Amazon founder Jeff Bezos told reporters after his first space tourism trip on Tuesday that Amazon customers and employees had “paid” for his flight, that only intensified that criticism.

But critics won’t deter Bezos and the other superrich. Space tourism is now a reality for the people who can afford it — and it will have repercussions for everyone on Earth.

In fact, all signs indicate that the market for these trips is already big enough that they’ll keep happening. Jeff Bezos’s spaceflight company Blue Origin already has two more trips scheduled later this year , while Virgin Galactic , the space firm founded by billionaire Richard Branson, has at least 600 people who have already paid around $250,000 each for future tickets on its spaceplane.

Now, as the commercial space tourism market (literally) gets off the ground, there are big questions facing future space travelers — and everyone else on the planet. Here are answers to the six biggest ones.

1. What will people actually be able to see and experience on a space trip?

The biggest perk of traveling to space is the view. Just past the boundary between space and Earth, passengers can catch a stunning glimpse of our planet juxtaposed against the wide unknown of space. If a passenger is riding on a Virgin Galactic flight, they will get about 53 miles above sea level. Blue Origin riders will get a little bit higher, about 62 miles above sea level and past the Kármán line, the internationally recognized boundary between Earth and space. Overall, the experience on both flights is pretty similar.

Welcome aboard #Unity22 , Virgin Galactic's first fully-crewed test flight. Watch the historic moment through the eyes of our mission specialists. pic.twitter.com/DEwbBkgJYl — Virgin Galactic (@virgingalactic) July 13, 2021

The view is meant to be awe-inducing, and the experience even has its own name: the Overview Effect . “​​When you see Earth from that high up, it changes your perspective on things and how interconnected we are and how we squander that here on Earth,” Wendy Whitman Cobb, a professor at the US Air Force’s School of Advanced Air and Space Studies, told Recode.

Another perk of these trips is that space tourists will feel a few minutes of microgravity, which is when gravity feels extremely weak . That will give them the chance to bounce around a spacecraft weightlessly before heading back to Earth.

But Blue Origin’s and Virgin Galactic’s flights are relatively brief — about 10 and 90 minutes long , respectively. Other space tourism flights from SpaceX, the space company founded by Elon Musk , will have more to offer. This fall, billionaire Jared Isaacman, who founded the company Shift4 Payments, will pilot SpaceX’s first all-civilian flight, the Inspiration4 , which will spend several days in orbit around Earth. In the coming years, the company has also planned private missions to the International Space Station, as well as a trip around the moon .

These trips are meant to be enjoyed by space nerds who longed to be astronauts. But there’s another reason rich people want to go to space: demonstrating exclusivity and conspicuous consumption. More than a few people can afford a trip to Venice or the Maldives. But how many people are privileged enough to take a trip to space?

“What a nice way of showing off these days than to post a picture on Instagram from space,” Sridhar Tayur, a Carnegie Mellon business professor, told Recode.

View this post on Instagram A post shared by Jeff Bezos (@jeffbezos)

2. Does commercial space travel have any scientific goals, or is it really just a joyride?

Right now, space tourism flights from Virgin Galactic and Blue Origin have only reached suborbital space , which means that flights enter space but do not enter orbit around Earth. Scientifically, that’s not a new frontier. Though these current flights use new technology, suborbital flight with humans aboard was accomplished by NASA back in the early 1960s , Matthew Hersch, a historian of technology at Harvard, told Recode.

Right now, it’s not clear these trips will offer scientists major new insights, but they might provide information that could be used in the future for space exploration. In fact, these trips are also being marketed as potential opportunities for scientific experiments. For instance, the most recent Virgin Galactic flight carried plants and tested how they responded to microgravity .

These private companies primarily see opportunities in their commercial vehicles that can be reused at scale, which will allow the same rockets (or in Virgin Galactic’s case, spaceplanes) to go to space again and again, which lowers the overall cost of space tourism.

Billionaires and their private space companies also see the development of these rockets as an opportunity to prepare for flights that will do even more, and go even farther, into space. Bezos, for instance, has argued that New Shepard’s suborbital flights will help prepare the company’s future missions, including its New Glenn rocket, which is meant for orbital space.

“The fact of the matter is, the architecture and the technology we have chosen is complete overkill for a suborbital tourism mission,” Bezos said at Tuesday’s post-launch briefing . “We have chosen the vertical landing architecture. Why did we do that? Because it scales.”

Beyond potential scientific advancements in the future, suborbital spaceflight might also create new ways to travel from one place on earth to another. SpaceX, for instance, has advertised that long-haul flights could be shortened to just 30 minutes by traveling through space.

3. Is it safe?

Right now, it’s not entirely clear just how risky space tourism is.

One way space tourism companies are trying to keep travelers safe is by requiring training so that the people who are taking a brief sojourn off Earth are as prepared as possible.

On the flight, people can experience intense altitude and G-forces. “This is sustained G-forces on your body, upwards of what can be 6 G in one direction — which is six times your body weight for upwards of 20 or 30 seconds,” Glenn King, the chief operating officer of the Nastar Center — the aerospace physiology training center that prepared Richard Branson for his flights — told Recode. “That’s a long time when you have six people, or your weight, pressing down on you.”

There’s also the chance that space tourists will be exposed to radiation, though that risk depends on how long you’re in space. “It’s a risk, especially more for the orbital flight than sub-orbital,” explains Whitman Cobb. “Going up in an airplane exposes you to a higher amount of radiation than you would get here on the ground.” She also warns that some tourists will likely barf on the ride.

There doesn’t seem to be an age limit on who can travel, though. The most recent Blue Origin flight included both the youngest person to ever travel to space, an 18-year-old Dutch teenager, as well as the oldest: 82-year-old pilot Wally Funk.

4. How much will tickets cost?

The leaders in commercial space tourism already claim they have a market to support the industry. While Bezos hinted on Tuesday the price would eventually come down — as eventually happened with the high prices of the nascent airline industry — for now, ticket prices are in the low hundreds of thousands, at least for Virgin Galactic . That price point would keep spaceflight out of reach for most of humanity, but there are enough interested rich people that space tourism seems to be economically feasible.

“If you bring it down to $250,000, the wait times [to buy a ticket] will be very long,” Tayur, of Carnegie Mellon, told Recode.

5. What impact will commercial space travel have on the environment?

The emissions of a flight to space can be worse than those of a typical airplane flight because just a few people hop aboard one of these flights, so the emissions per passenger are much higher. That pollution could become much worse if space tourism becomes more popular. Virgin Galactic alone eventually aims to launch 400 of these flights annually.

“The carbon footprint of launching yourself into space in one of these rockets is incredibly high, close to about 100 times higher than if you took a long-haul flight,” Eloise Marais , a physical geography professor at the University College London, told Recode. “It’s incredibly problematic if we want to be environmentally conscious and consider our carbon footprint.”

These flights’ effects on the environment will differ depending on factors like the fuel they use, the energy required to manufacture that fuel, and where they’re headed — and all these factors make it difficult to model their environmental impact. For instance, Jeff Bezos has argued that the liquid hydrogen and oxygen fuel Blue Origin uses is less damaging to the environment than the other space competitors (technically, his flight didn’t release carbon dioxide ), but experts told Recode it could still have significant environmental effects .

There are also other risks we need to keep studying , including the release of soot that could hurt the stratosphere and the ozone. A study from 2010 found that the soot released by 1,000 space tourism flights could warm Antarctica by nearly 1 degree Celsius. “There are some risks that are unknown,” Paul Peeters, a tourism sustainability professor at the Breda University of Applied Sciences, told Recode. “We should do much more work to assess those risks and make sure that they do not occur or to alleviate them somehow — before you start this space tourism business.” Overall, he thinks the environmental costs are reason enough not to take such a trip.

6. Who is regulating commercial space travel?

Right now, the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) has generally been given the job of overseeing the commercial space industry. But regulation of space is still relatively meager.

One of the biggest areas of concern is licensing launches and making sure that space flights don’t end up hitting all the other flying vehicles humans launch into the sky, like planes and drones. Just this June, a SpaceX flight was held up after a helicopter flew into the zone of the launch.

There’s a lot that still needs to be worked out, especially as there are more of these launches. On Thursday, the Senate hosted a hearing with leaders of the commercial space industry focused on overseeing the growing amount of civil space traffic .

At the same time, the FAA is also overseeing a surging number of spaceports — essentially airports for spaceflight — and making sure there’s enough space for them to safely set up their launches.

But there are other areas where the government could step in. “I think the cybersecurity aspect will also play a very vital role, so that people don’t get hacked,” Tayur said. The FAA told Recode that the agency has participated in developing national principles for space cybersecurity, but Congress hasn’t given it a specific role in looking at the cybersecurity of space.

At some point, the government might also step in to regulate the environmental impact of these flights, too, but that’s not something the FAA currently has jurisdiction over.

In the meantime, no government agency is currently vetting these companies when it comes to the safety of the human passengers aboard. An FAA official confirmed with Recode that while the agency is awarding licenses to companies to carry humans to space , they’re not actually confirming that these trips are safe. That’s jurisdiction Congress won’t give the agency until 2023.

There doesn’t seem to be an abundance of travelers’ insurance policies for space. “Passengers basically sign that they’re waiving all their rights,” Whitman Cobb said. “You’re acknowledging that risk and doing it yourself right now.”

So fair warning, if you decide to shell out hundreds of thousands of dollars for a joyride to space: You’d likely have to accept all responsibility if you get hurt.

Will you support Vox today?

We believe that everyone deserves to understand the world that they live in. That kind of knowledge helps create better citizens, neighbors, friends, parents, and stewards of this planet. Producing deeply researched, explanatory journalism takes resources. You can support this mission by making a financial gift to Vox today. Will you join us?

We accept credit card, Apple Pay, and Google Pay. You can also contribute via

Next Up In Technology

Sign up for the newsletter today, explained.

Understand the world with a daily explainer plus the most compelling stories of the day.

Thanks for signing up!

Check your inbox for a welcome email.

Oops. Something went wrong. Please enter a valid email and try again.

Harvey Weinstein’s overturned conviction, explained by a lawyer

The AI grift that can literally poison you

Everything’s a cult now

We could be heading into the hottest summer of our lives

How today’s antiwar protests stack up against major student movements in history

What the backlash to student protests over Gaza is really about

With Space Tourism a Reality, Will Civilians Travel to Space? And When?

Courtesy Unsplash/SpaceX

BU Today staff

Dana ferrante.

Majd Mayyasi (GRS’09,’13), a BU Center for Space Physics senior research scientist, discusses the future of civilian space travel and how it would impact the study of space with BU Today editor Doug Most. She also shares her experience training for suborbital flight as part of an inaugural program for scientists.

 You can also find this episode on  Apple Podcasts ,  Spotify ,  Google Podcasts , and  other podcast platforms .

• Recent flights by private space travel companies Blue Origin and Virgin Galactic make civilian space travel and tourism a reality
• Increased civilian space travel will afford scientists, like Mayyasi, greater opportunities to conduct experiments in space. Currently, the cost of a trip to space is still prohibitive
• Space tourists may still need to undergo some physical and mental training before taking a suborbital flight

Dana Ferrante: This is Question of the Week , from BU Today .

With space tourism now a reality, will civilians travel to space, and when? This summer, billionaires Jeff Bezos and Richard Branson each took a suborbital flight in their respective supersonic rockets, launching a new era of space travel, where a ticket to space is available to anyone who can afford it.

In this episode, Doug Most asked Majd Mayyasi, a senior research scientist at the Center for Space Physics at Boston University, about the future of civilian space travel. Mayyasi also shares her experience training for suborbital flight as part of an inaugural program for scientists.

Doug Most: Hi, Majd. Okay, let’s talk space.

So when I read the stories about Bezos and Branson, I admit that I wondered, if given the opportunity, would I want to go up to space? Seeing Earth from above and experiencing weightlessness would be incredible, that’s not really debatable, but is that enough? What do you think? Will space tourism become a real thing?

Majd Mayyasi: Well, Doug, this is a really good question. And one that I’ve been thinking about for a long time, way before Jeff Bezos and Richard Branson made interesting flights. About 11 years or so ago, there was an opportunity for scientists to train for suborbital flight. And the reason they were doing this was because they knew that ultimately this would become a reality, space tourism and space travel.

And also they wanted to get scientists engaged in this opportunity, so it’s been a project that has been in the workings for a very long time. And I actually partnered up with a group that was training scientists to do these suborbital flights. And so I was lucky to be a member of one of the first groups of scientists that got the train for this.

And we trained for the Virgin Galactic module, so it’s been something I’ve been thinking about for a long time. And since that time, you know, would I actually go to space if I had the opportunity? And the answer is most definitely yes. It is by far one of the coolest things I’ve ever done.

It’s extremely engaging to talk about with other people, especially when I do outreach to communities. And in talking to children about what you can do as an astronomer, or how to engage them in astronomy, it’s super fun to tell them that you can potentially go to space someday—if that’s something that you’re interested in—without having to go through all the rigorous training that an astronaut would go through [to become] a full-fledged astronaut.

And so there’s a lot of cool opportunities, and I’m happy to see that this is starting to become more and more of a tangible reality.

Most: Can you just take us inside that training? What was that like? How hard was it and sort of what were you doing?

Mayyasi: It was about a week long or so. It involved a lot of technical background that we first needed to be aware of before we engaged in any of the actual physical training. The physical part involved going into an altitude chamber and seeing what would happen when oxygen levels dropped to a certain level.

With a lot of tests that we needed to undergo or to take, mental tests to see what our thinking capacity would look like with less oxygen. Another test was in the centrifuge—we got to go into the centrifuge, and I think that center has one of the only centrifuges meant for this kind of training in the country.

We got to experience three times the force of gravity going down, which is what people would experience going into space and suborbital flight for the Virgin Galactic module. And we also got to experience six times the force of gravity and going inwards into our chest. And that is to simulate what we would feel going back down during reentry.

Most: What were those like? What was it like to experience the three times and the six times?

Mayyasi: The three times the force of gravity was challenging; we didn’t have any special suits on, which is I think what a lot of fighter pilots would typically wear. And they undergo this kind of challenge with different times the force of gravity and sometimes more than three.

For the purposes of three, the challenge was not to pass out, because at three times the force of gravity, the blood is more challenged and being pumped up to your head. And say you’re more likely to start seeing stars before you actually get to them, physically. And so there are maneuvers that you try to basically activate the larger muscles in your body to constrict the blood to enforce it basically to stay up in the upper half of your body.

And that will help you not pass out ultimately, which works, I have to say. The six times the force of gravity on GX, so going into your chest, was really fun and I think a lot of people see that sometimes on TV. When someone has just plastered to their chair and their skin on their cheek is rippling back, that’s a lot of exactly what it looks like and feels like.

It’s pretty interesting, it’s like getting, it’s actually kind of soothing, because your body’s just plastered up against this chair. And it feels like an interesting kind of full body massage.

Most: Almost sounds like a supersonic roller coaster?

Mayyasi: Yeah, that’s really close to it. The challenge is not to turn your head, because that will make you extremely dizzy.

There are cells in your ear that are very sensitive to that kind of force, and it can make people very dizzy for a few days after the fact if they accidentally gets stimulated in the wrong way. So there are some challenges, some restrictions, but it is so much fun, and it was so exciting to be able to train with that program.

And more interestingly, it was very, I think it was very convenient, to be able to be given that opportunity to be able to go into space. And when we’re talking about scientists going into space, we’re not going for the ride; I mean, that’s in and of itself, very cool, obviously. But we’re also going to able to do some science. And you’re gonna be in zero gravity or in that part where you feel weightless for about four minutes. And so the challenges are in being able to design an experiment that you can do in four minutes: designing something that you can debug potentially in four minutes, if anything should go wrong, understanding how to mitigate those issues because you’re gonna be in microgravity.

So you’re gonna be flying around and then your pencil is gonna be in one place and your notebook is in another place. So, mitigating all of that should you have to debug anything is also something to keep in mind. And we did have training for that as well.

Most: It sounds like you think that there will be a day when civilians may actually get a chance to travel into space? You sound somewhat confident—how far out is that?

Mayyasi: That’s a great question. I think that depends on the business model of these companies.

Because currently, as I understand it, the ticket is about a quarter of a million dollars. And so it’s definitely beyond my budget, both personally and professionally. If I were to put this on a science grant to fund my project, for example, it would have to be 10 times less than that, something closer to the $25,000 range.

And if it becomes more commercial, I would say, the prices need to be competitive and something that a person can reasonably afford to spend on a trip like this. It’s definitely super exciting, it’s definitely something that is unique for us today, and I think it’s definitely tangible. And I think it’s just a matter of time until the businesses get to a point where they can facilitate these kinds of trips in an affordable way.

Currently, people have gone to the edge of space with this program. So just at that time cutoff, I’m gonna use SI units here, it’s 100 kilometers, that defines the edge of space more or less. And so that’s where these spacecraft have gone to. To go beyond that, there are other factors to take into consideration also.

A bit higher than that you start going into low Earth orbit, where you have satellites, and how high do you wanna go basically? Are you gonna start interacting with space debris? Are you going to start maybe orbiting alongside a spacecraft? What is the goal for that basically? Are you gonna go pass by the International Space Station, wave at the astronauts, and come back?

It all depends on what the application is. And there are also certain guidelines I think one should be aware of, in terms of what’s already out there at different altitudes. When I was given the opportunity to join this team, it was through a competitive process at BU. They had offered us one seat at BU, the group that was organizing this, and the scientists that ultimately got chosen were from all over the US.

And so, this one seat given at BU was offered by competition and I proposed a certain experiment that I could do at that altitude. I also have a young child and when I talked to him about this, he’s like, “No, you should never go into space, that’s too scary, it’s too risky,” and so on.

But so is driving in your car and so is going on a plane, right? Those are all risky things. I would most definitely go, because it’s so exciting. And because, for me, as a scientist, it offers a lot of opportunities that are not accessible through other means.

This 100-kilometer altitude, it’s not easily accessible by many other methods; I mean, there are maybe sounding rockets that can go up that high. And you can maybe look down at that region from spacecraft that are higher up, but actually physically be there, in situ, and to be able to do your experiment at that altitude, I think, is a remarkable opportunity, and I would take it without hesitation.

Ferrante: Thanks to Majd Mayyasi for joining us on Question of the Week . 

If you liked the show, please remember to rate, share, and review us on your podcast app of choice. I’m Dana Ferrante; see you next week.

This Series

How Is the Conversation around Mental Health Changing among College Students?

October 31, 2022

Why Are This Year’s Midterm Elections Especially Important?

October 17, 2022

Will the Supreme Court End Affirmative Action?

September 26, 2022

How Do I Talk to a Climate Change Denier?

Series home

Explore Related Topics:

• Share this story
• 2 Comments Add

BU Today staff Profile

Production Manager

Dana Ferrante is production manager for BU Today , The Brink , and Bostonia , and produces BU Today ’s award-winning, biweekly podcast Question of the Week . She is also a Metropolitan College MLA candidate in gastronomy, and can be reached at [email protected] . Profile

Comments & Discussion

Boston University moderates comments to facilitate an informed, substantive, civil conversation. Abusive, profane, self-promotional, misleading, incoherent or off-topic comments will be rejected. Moderators are staffed during regular business hours (EST) and can only accept comments written in English. Statistics or facts must include a citation or a link to the citation.

There are 2 comments on With Space Tourism a Reality, Will Civilians Travel to Space? And When?

Excellent interview and conversation with an expert who experienced all the pre-orbital stress tests. Like many I was mesmerized with the successful launch and landing of normal ‘Astro-humans’.

Space tourism is a concept that reminds me of the 80s… and I was not even alive then. From my 80s–Back to the Future–self I am excited at this concept. However, from my 2021 environmentalist self, the concept bothers me. We are living in a struggling climate (and not just the environment) where some of the richest people are allowed to visit space for fun, while people are working minimum wage jobs to provide for their family… and not even making enough. We are living in a climate that is suffocating from the anthropogenic greenhouse gas pollution that we have been releasing and, yet, instead of dedicating the funding, research, and time on trying to solve this crisis (that is still very much in need of it), some are focusing on making space tourism a reality. Tourism is not a necessity in the way that physical security is. I understand the need for science and am in no way attempting to speak negatively about Majd Mayyasi, because the study of space is important! I am specifically talking about using the funding and time to make space into a tourist trap instead of trying to remediate some of humanity’s own disastrous impacts on Earth. Overall, I agree, I bet leisurely traveling to space would be amazing, but not until the issues that we face on Earth are addressed, especially those around equity (in all realms… environmental, income, etc).

Post a comment. Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Latest from BU Today

Coming-of-age story of immigrant child wins big at redstone film festival, does “tipping fatigue” justify paying minimum wage to tipped workers, student documentary explores the legacy of charcoal, a magazine by and about students of color, bu hosts first-of-its-kind queer food conference, men’s tennis team on a quest for first patriot league title, this year’s tedxbu talks: childhood, privilege—and fungi, a video tour of stuvi i and stuvi ii, the weekender: april 25 to 28, sunday in the park with george opens at booth theatre, bu student-athletes honored at 2024 scarlet & white awards ceremony, a rundown of the best thrift and vintage spots near bu, pov: the biden-trump rematch may mark the end of an era, combating loneliness and creating healthy relationships, five common sexual health myths debunked, global programs photo contest showcases bu’s worldwide adventures and experiences, book recommendations in honor of world book day, anonymous $1m gift bolsters american & new england studies program, waste watchers, as we celebrate earth day, a reminder of what cannot be recycled at bu, bu honors best student employees and supervisor.

The Satellites Podcast

The Final Frontier: Weighing the Benefits and Drawbacks of Space Tourism

Are you ready to boldly go where few have gone before? Space tourism promises to be the ultimate adventure for thrill-seekers and astronomy enthusiasts alike. From seeing the Earth from space to experiencing zero gravity, the prospect of space travel is an exciting one.

But with any new technology, there are always drawbacks to consider, particularly for something as risky as strapping yourself to a rocket and leaving the planet’s atmosphere. In this blog post, we’ll take a closer look at the pros and cons of space tourism, and weigh up whether it’s really worth the risk.

But before we explore its benefits, let’s consider the drawbacks of space tourism.

As humanity continues to push the boundaries of exploration, one exciting concept that gains increasing attention is space tourism. However, while the idea of traveling beyond Earth’s atmosphere may seem exhilarating, it’s important to weigh the potential benefits against the drawbacks of space tourism.

On the one hand, space tourism could offer numerous benefits, including inspiring innovation and scientific discovery, driving new economic opportunities, and providing an unforgettable experience to those who embark on such a journey. On the other hand, there are significant drawbacks of space tourism that must be considered, including the high cost of entry, the potential environmental impact, and the risks to human safety.

While the idea of looking into the vast unknown is appealing, it’s vital that we take a close look at the full picture before we jump aboard this new frontier.

Table of Contents

Introduction to Space Tourism

Advantages of space tourism, economic benefits of space tourism, technological advances from space tourism, environmental concerns of space tourism, health and safety risks of space tourism, ethical considerations of space tourism, conclusion and future of space tourism, exploring the pros and cons of space tourism with the satellites podcast.

As humans, we have always looked up at the stars with wonder and curiosity. The idea of space travel has been a focus of science fiction for generations, but what was once a figment of our imagination is now becoming a reality – thanks to space tourism.

For those unfamiliar with the concept, space tourism is exactly what it sounds like – tourists traveling to space for recreational or leisure purposes. With advancements in technology, space travel has become a possibility for those with deep pockets and a sense of adventure.

Space tourism could be the pinnacle experience that travelers search for – the ultimate exploration of the unknown. But as the space tourism industry grows, there are concerns and drawbacks to be weighed.

While it allows the wealthy to experience space, the high cost limits accessibility to all but the richest individuals. Additionally, the environmental impact of space tourism must be considered.

Launching rockets and other vehicles could harm the already fragile balance of our planet’s atmosphere. As we continue to debate the benefits and drawbacks of space tourism, we must also look ahead to the future of space travel.

Will it remain reserved for the elite, or will advances in technology allow for more widespread access? Regardless of the outcome, the concept of space tourism will continue to captivate our imaginations as we explore the final frontier.

Exploring Outer Space has long been a fascination of many, and only a select few have had the opportunity to venture beyond our planet. However, with the rise of space tourism, more people than ever before may soon have the chance to experience what it’s like to be an astronaut.

One of the primary benefits of Space Tourism is the potential for scientific research. As more and more people are able to travel to space, researchers can gather a wealth of data that was previously limited to only a handful of astronauts.

This new data could lead to breakthrough discoveries in fields like astronomy, physics, and biology.Another advantage of Space Tourism is the economic boost it could provide.

The industry has the potential to not only create jobs but also drive technological advancements and innovations that could benefit industries beyond just space-related ones.Moreover, space tourism could inspire a new generation of people to pursue careers in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) fields.

As more people become interested in space exploration and the possibilities it holds, they may be motivated to invest their time and energy into learning the skills required to become astronauts, engineers, and scientists.However, it’s not all smooth sailing when it comes to Space Tourism.

One major drawback is the potential risks involved. Space travel is inherently hazardous, and even with the best safety measures in place, accidents can happen.

Furthermore, the environmental impact of space tourism could be significant, as rockets and other space travel equipment can release harmful emissions into the atmosphere.Overall, exploring Outer Space has enormous potential to benefit us in myriad ways.

However, it’s important to weigh the pros and cons and consider the impacts of our actions as we move forward with this exciting frontier.

Space tourism has been a hot topic in recent years. Many people dream of traveling to space and experiencing the weightlessness and breathtaking views that only a select few have been able to witness.

While there are many potential benefits to space tourism, there are also some significant drawbacks that need to be considered. One of the key benefits of space tourism is the potential economic impact.

It’s estimated that the space tourism industry could be worth billions of dollars within the next decade.However, the cost of space tourism may be a barrier to entry for many.

Currently, the cost to travel to space is prohibitively high for all but a handful of ultra-wealthy individuals. For example, a trip to the International Space Station costs around $35,000 per night.

This means that only the wealthiest people in the world will be able to afford a trip to space in the near future.Despite these high costs, there are some potential economic benefits to space tourism.

For example, space tourism could create new jobs in the aerospace industry and stimulate economic growth in areas that are involved in space travel. Additionally, space tourism could lead to advancements in technology that could have applications beyond the tourism industry.

Ultimately, the cost of space tourism is a significant factor that needs to be considered when weighing the benefits and drawbacks of this new industry. While there are some potential economic benefits, the cost may be too high for the majority of people to participate in space tourism in the near future.

However, as technology advances and costs are reduced, it’s possible that space tourism could become more accessible for a wider range of people.

As the prospect of space tourism edges closer to reality, many people are left wondering if the benefits of indulging in this unique experience outweigh the potential drawbacks. While there are certainly risks associated with venturing beyond the Earth’s atmosphere, there are also several technological advances that could emerge from the pursuit of space tourism.

One major benefit of space tourism is the potential for scientific advancements. Spacecraft used for tourism purposes may also carry equipment and resources, allowing scientists to conduct research and experiments in space that would not be possible with current technology.

This could lead to breakthroughs in a variety of fields, including medicine, engineering, and more.Moreover, the advancements made in creating and operating spacecraft for tourists may lead to more efficient and cost-effective methods of space travel.

The experience gained from transporting passengers safely and efficiently to space could translate into improved technology and infrastructure for future space missions.However, it is important to acknowledge the potential drawbacks of space tourism as well.

The risk of accidents or malfunctions cannot be ignored, particularly when taking civilians into space. Additionally, there is the ethical question of whether or not space tourism is a justifiable use of resources when there are still so many problems to solve here on Earth.

Ultimately, whether or not space tourism is worth it depends on one’s perspective and priorities. While it may provide benefits in terms of scientific advancements and technological innovation, it is also important to consider the potential risks and ethical concerns involved.

Only time will tell if the benefits of space tourism will truly outweigh the drawbacks.

Space Travel has always been an object of fascination for humankind. However, with recent advancements in technology and a growing interest in commercial space travel, the idea of Space Tourism has become a popular topic of discussion.

When it comes to considering the benefits and drawbacks of Space Tourism, one cannot ignore the environmental concerns that come along with it. The carbon footprint of building and launching a spacecraft, as well as the emissions that will be produced during flights, are some of the primary concerns.

In addition, Space Tourism could raise concerns about the impact of waste produced during space travel on the pristine environment of space. Since space lacks the necessary resources to support human life, waste management in space is a significant challenge.

However, proponents of Space Tourism argue that the technological innovations and advancements made during the development of this industry could aid environmental conservation. For instance, the development of reusable rockets could usher in an era of more sustainable space operations.

Furthermore, as more people gain access to Space Travel, the understanding of the importance of preserving our planet’s natural resources could increase. This, in turn, could lead to greater public support for conservation efforts.

In conclusion, the environmental concerns surrounding Space Tourism are valid, and they should not be overlooked. However, with proper planning and implementation, Space Tourism could also bring about significant benefits for sustainability both on Earth and in space.

When it comes to commercial space travel, the concept of health and safety risks is certainly one of the most talked-about topics. After all, space is a dangerous place, and taking tourists into space is a risky affair.

But what exactly are these risks, and how do they compare to the benefits of space tourism?Firstly, there are the physical risks associated with space travel. The human body is not designed to survive in the harsh environment of space, and there are a number of health issues that can arise as a result.

These can range from minor problems like nausea and motion sickness to more serious issues like radiation exposure and bone density loss. However, with proper training and preparation, many of these risks can be mitigated or avoided altogether.

In addition to physical risks, there are also financial risks to consider. The cost of launching a spacecraft is exorbitant, and if something goes wrong during a commercial space travel mission, it could have huge financial repercussions for the company involved.

Despite these risks, many experts argue that the benefits of space tourism far outweigh the drawbacks. For one thing, space tourism could help to spark a new era of space exploration, and could lead to advances in technology and innovation that could benefit humanity as a whole.

Ultimately, the decision of whether or not to pursue commercial space travel is a complex one that requires careful consideration of all the risks and benefits involved. But with the right planning and preparation, it is possible to make space tourism a safe and profitable venture that could open up a whole new frontier for human exploration.

The Space Tourism Industry has seen a significant boom in recent years, raising a variety of ethical considerations concerning the benefits and drawbacks of opening the final frontier to a broader audience. While proponents of Space Tourism champion the innovative opportunities and scientific discoveries that could emerge from this new sector, its skeptics warn of environmental concerns, ethical implications, and long-term impacts on society.

One of the primary ethical considerations surrounding Space Tourism is the potential impact on the environment. Commercial launches and frequent space travel have the potential to cause significant damage to our planet as well as to the space itself, including increased atmospheric pollution, excessive noise, and debris.

Additionally, the use of non-renewable resources to fuel journeys could have serious ecological impacts, raising questions about sustainability.Moreover, the equitable distribution of Space Tourism is another ethical matter that needs to be considered.

As the costs to travel beyond the Earth’s atmosphere are likely to be prohibitive for many, this industry could further exacerbate existing social imbalances if the benefits are only accessible to a wealthy elite.Some supporters of Space Tourism argue that the benefits of advancing scientific knowledge and engineering in this field can outweigh the potential ethical concerns.

In addition, space tourism could provide a new source of revenue for space agencies that could be spent on funding further scientific research and development.In conclusion, there are various ethical considerations surrounding the Space Tourism Industry that need to be taken into account before finalizing this new frontier.

While some advocates believe it could result in positive outcomes regarding innovation and scientific discovery, others fear the detrimental long-term consequences that could harm our planet and society as a whole.

The prospects of space tourism are both tantalizing and cautionary. As we ponder the possibilities of interstellar exploration and celestial vacations, it’s important to weigh the pros and cons of this exciting and potentially game-changing industry.

On the one hand, space tourism presents a unique opportunity to expand human knowledge and experience beyond our earthly realm. It has the potential to inspire new generations of scientists, engineers, and adventurers, and to foster international cooperation in the pursuit of shared goals.

Moreover, it could stimulate economic growth and technological innovation by creating new jobs, markets, and product lines.On the other hand, space tourism also entails significant risks and downsides.

From a safety standpoint, it involves complex and hazardous systems that require high levels of expertise and preparation. In addition, it can have negative environmental impacts, such as pollution, depletion of resources, and disruption of ecosystems.

Furthermore, it raises ethical and social concerns about the fairness and accessibility of extraterrestrial experiences, as well as the potential commercialization and commodification of space.As we consider the balance of these factors, it’s clear that space tourism is a complex and multi-faceted issue that requires careful consideration and dialogue.

While there may be no easy answers or clear-cut solutions, it’s important to engage in thoughtful and informed discussions about the future of this exciting and evolving field. Ultimately, the fate of space tourism will depend on our collective vision, values, and aspirations for the final frontier.

The Satellites Podcast is an all-encompassing YouTube channel for space enthusiasts who want to learn about various topics related to rocket science. One of the topics that the channel focuses on is Space Tourism.

Space tourism is a concept that has gained a lot of popularity in recent years. As people become more adventurous and willing to pay for exotic experiences, space tourism is becoming a real possibility.

The question everyone asks themselves is, is it worth it? So, how does The Satellites Podcast help in answering the pros and cons of space tourism? The Satellites Podcast provides a platform where individuals can learn about the ins-and-outs of space tourism. There are different experts on the show who provide insights into the industry, the cost, and the experience.

The show evaluates the benefits of space tourism, such as the opportunity for people to experience what astronauts see and feel, the global economic boost from the industry, and the fact that it will inspire a new generation of scientists and space enthusiasts. On the flip side, the show also explores the cons of space tourism, such as the significant environmental impact on Earth, the difficulty and danger in space travel, and the immense costs and the socio-economic inequality that will occur if only the wealthy can afford to partake in this experience.

Whether for research or entertainment purposes, The Satellites Podcast is an ideal place to educate oneself on the prospect and the implications of space tourism.

Finishing Up

In conclusion, the topic of space tourism offers an intriguing debate on whether or not it is worth pursuing. While some argue that the benefits of space tourism, such as boosting scientific advancements and inspiring young people, outweigh the possible negative consequences, others believe that the risks to human life and the environment are simply too great.

Ultimately, the decision to invest in space tourism rests on a complex balance of priorities and values. Whether we choose to explore the final frontier or focus on improving conditions on our own planet remains to be seen, but one thing is certain – the exploration of space will continue to captivate the human imagination for generations to come.

Share this:

Leave a comment cancel reply.

Published by The Satellites Podcast

View all posts by The Satellites Podcast

• Already have a WordPress.com account? Log in now.
• Subscribe Subscribed
• Copy shortlink
• Report this content
• View post in Reader
• Manage subscriptions
• Collapse this bar

Space tourism is on the rise. Can NASA keep up with it?

An official space tourism department could help prevent private rocket riders from clashing with working astronauts.

By Tatyana Woodall | Published Aug 12, 2022 4:59 PM EDT

When Axiom Space sent the first private crew to the International Space Station earlier this year , an overly aggressive itinerary caused some ripples in the professional astronauts’ work performance. Though it’s unclear if the trip interfered with the ISS crew’s science goals, the atmosphere aboard the station was strained—a classic example of too many cooks in the kitchen. Operations were impacted enough that the ISS and Axiom astronauts’ collective experiences motivated NASA to release new rules that commercial space companies will have to adhere to if they continue to join in on spaceflight activities going forward. What those changes could look like, however, will depend on how supportive and accepting NASA is to the still-emerging industry. 

Notably, the agency could require a former NASA astronaut to act as mission commander for private spaceflights, a move that would essentially make the agency a permanent liaison between public and US-based private space commerce. (The Axiom flight did already have a former NASA astronaut on board, Michael Lopez-Alegría , along with three first-time passengers—a businessman, an investor, and a real-estate magnate). 

“We got up there and, boy, we were overwhelmed,” López-Alegría said during a post-mission press conference. “Getting used to zero gravity is not an overnight thing.”

To avoid packed itineraries in flight, space tourism companies might also be required to provide documentation of the private astronauts’ work schedules. Additionally, because research activities weren’t originally envisioned as something space tourists would take part in, private companies will now submit research requests to the International Space Station National Laboratory no later than a year before expected launch. This is a huge hurdle for companies with similar objectives to Axiom, whose business model offers space tourists the opportunity to engage in activities like STEM outreach, experiments, photography and filmmaking once aboard the ISS. Members of the Axiom-1 crew helped conduct tests on self-assembling technology for future space habitats, cancer stem cells, and even air purification research. But by now NASA understands that successfully privatizing space will be harder than originally thought. 

The main reason why the ISS has had a difficult time integrating private space travel into its repertoire is because tourism has never been part of NASA’s charter, says Madhu Thangavelu , a lecturer at the University of Southern California and an expert on space tourism and architecture. “NASA is more interested in exploration, human factors, and in human physiology studies on the station, which is what they excel at,” he says. 

[Related: Here are all the ways to visit space this decade (if you’re extremely rich) ]

Axiom isn’t the agency’s first brush with the tourism industry—and previous attempts have been met with much more resistance. In 2001, Dennis Tito , an engineer and US millionaire, became the world’s first space tourist when he planned to visit Russia’s space station Mir . But his flight was diverted to the ISS when the Russian station was later deorbited . Tito stayed on the station for a little less than eight days, compared to the Axiom crew’s 10-day mission, but NASA later reported that his trip caused too many disruptions.  

“They were not at all welcoming to people roaming around the station when the agency is busy doing other things,” Thangavelu, who is also on the board of directors for the National Space Society, says. 

Such instances raise important moral and legal questions as private space tourism expands: Who makes the rules for astronaut behavior, misconduct, or accidents, and who should enforce them? Currently, these space travelers are free from international agency’s scrutiny that professional astronauts are subject to, which means that any misfortune aboard the station would open up a brand new can of worms for companies to deal with.  

Bigger and broader changes need to happen across the industry if space is to become easily and financially accessible to the general public. For example, instead of relying on private commercial companies to pave the way to public access, Thangavelu says that if NASA is serious about enabling commercial space activities, the agency should focus on creating a dedicated office for space tourism. 

“It’s my belief that if we give the station access to the private sector, we will get very creative in how to better manage the facility,” he says. Taking space adventurers on tours of the ISS or involving them in lab research, he says, could also drastically lower the costs of typical missions and lend structure to the preparation and resources needed to ensure both a private and professional astronaut’s continued safety.

[Related: Selling tickets to the space station is actually decades overdue ]

Other experts share Thangavelu’s views. Rachel Fu , director of the University of Florida’s Eric Friedheim Tourism Institute, says that compared to typical Earth-bound leisure activities, space tourism is a much more complicated endeavor that impacts our society on a global level. The industry needs to be constantly supervised, and having at least one government entity in the new global space race take that helm would benefit all involved parties, Fu says. Beyond tourism, private companies could further open up independent research and experiments in space. Fu also notes that the more people who are able to contribute to the next generation of knowledge, the better. 

There are currently no public plans by either NASA or the ISS to create a department solely for facilitating private spaceflights. At the moment, “NASA sees private astronaut missions as an important part of stimulating demand for commercial customers and astronauts to live and work in low-Earth orbit,“ Angela Hart, program manager of NASA’s Commercial Low-Earth Orbit Development, told Popular Science in a statement over email. She also said that it offers astronauts an opportunity to interact with crews of different training levels and goals. 

Even now, as space tourism continues its meteoric rise, being able to navigate the subtler social nuances of space travel is important as humans start to expand outwards towards the stars. And when deciding who gets to soar above Earth next, industry experts are likely to prioritize them. 

Tatyana Woodall is a regular contributor to Popular Science. Based in Ohio, she’s extremely interested in how science and technology intertwine in daily life.

Like science, tech, and DIY projects?

Sign up to receive Popular Science's emails and get the highlights.

The Past, Present, and Future of Space Tourism

It’s been more than 20 years since the first space tourist took flight, but there’s a lot more to come in the emerging industry of space tourism..

• Copy Link copied

Are space vacations in our near future?

Illustration by Delcan & Co.

When Austrian journalist Gerhard Pistor requested to book a trip to the moon in 1964, his travel agency forwarded his query to Pan American World Airways—Pan Am. The now-defunct airline accepted the reservation and noted that the first flights to the moon would take off in the year 2000. So began a years-long space-tourism marketing stunt in which some 93,000 people joined Pan Am’s First Moon Flights Club, a waiting list for the first civilian trips to the moon.

That, of course, never happened. But as the Space Age advanced, space tourism did, too. In 2001, American entrepreneur Dennis Tito became the first true space tourist, launching aboard a Russian Soyuz spacecraft and spending more than a week aboard the International Space Station (ISS)—reportedly spending $20 million to do so.

Today, we’re in a new era of space tourism, with growing numbers of civilians leaving Earth for brief moments through private enterprises focusing on such endeavors. And in the coming decades, we may even see the dawn of regular long-duration space vacations.

The Birth of Space Tourism

After the Apollo era, companies investigated opportunities to send civilians rather than government professionals—that is, NASA astronauts—into space. In the 1970s, manufacturing conglomerate Rockwell International, a contractor for NASA’s Space Shuttle program, researched the possibility of passenger modules that could fit into the payload bay of the Space Shuttle, with similar concepts developed by other companies over the subsequent decade. None came to fruition.

NASA did open up its spaceflights to nongovernment professionals, though, primarily as payload specialists, who were tasked to complete specific in-flight projects by companies outside of NASA. NASA also developed the Teacher in Space and Journalist in Space programs to open up spaceflight to several civilians annually. But the programs were ended after the Challenger disaster in 1986, which killed the first Teacher in Space participant, Christa McAuliffe, along with her six crew members. The program was considered for a revival, but that, too, was ended after a Space Shuttle failure—this one, the fatal Columbia disaster in 2003.

Space tourism finally became successful in 2001 with Tito’s launch to the ISS. That trip was organized by a company called Space Adventures, which ultimately saw eight other space tourists take trips to the ISS through 2009, each launched on a Russian Soyuz spacecraft. But these tourist flights ended after the retirement of NASA’s Space Shuttle program in 2011. Because the only spacecraft capable of human spaceflight at that time was the Soyuz , every seat on every launch was needed for professional astronauts from around the world, and tourism was put on the back burner.

Space Tourism Today

For the past decade, private space tourism companies have been developing spacecraft to take passengers on suborbital flights, which bring them to the edge of space and back down to Earth in relatively short “hops” lasting anywhere from a few minutes to a few hours. By comparison, the first nine Space Adventure clients flew orbital missions that encircled the planet for days.

The method of flight varies by company. Blue Origin , for instance, launches vertically like most rockets, whereas Virgin Galactic flies a rocket-powered space plane that is launched from the belly of a carrier aircraft. While these two companies are the only suborbital companies cleared by the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) for launches—both have already carried passengers to space—other companies are preparing for liftoff. That includes space-balloon companies Space Perspective and World View , which offer a far more leisurely journey than rocket-powered ascents, gently lifting passengers to high altitudes in a high-tech version of a hot air balloon. Across all suborbital space tourism companies, prices range from approximately $50,000 to $450,000 per seat.

Orbital tourism has also made a comeback, though at far higher prices: tens of millions of dollars per seat. SpaceX , which is contracted by NASA to launch astronauts to the ISS, is also available for private charters. In 2021, entrepreneur Jared Isaacman organized the Inspiration4 mission, the world’s first all-civilian mission, during which he and three crewmates orbited the Earth in a SpaceX Crew Dragon capsule as a fundraiser for St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital. In 2022, SpaceX provided the launch vehicle for the Axiom mission 1 (Ax-1), the world’s first all-civilian mission to the ISS, during which four crew members spent eight days onboard the orbiting research facility.

Space Adventures is also back in business; it organized a flight to the ISS for Japanese entrepreneur Yusaku Maezawa, who traveled to space in December 2021. Maezawa intends to charter SpaceX’s under-development Starship spacecraft for a moon mission called the dearMoon project, taking with him eight civilians on the journey.

What’s Next for Space Tourism

Space tourism remains in its nascent phase, with plenty of work to be done. Existing suborbital companies are still tweaking launch vehicles and increasing launch cadence to approach regularity, while upcoming ones are waiting for FAA approval to begin their operations. And, hopefully, the space tourism companies will eventually be able to reduce the cost of flights, too.

But many enterprises are already eyeing the future when it comes to space tourism—a future in low-Earth orbit (LEO). NASA itself is investing in that future through the Commercial LEO Development Program, through which it is funding the development of private space stations. As NASA and its international partners move toward retiring the ISS in the next decade or so, the agency hopes to rent facilities from private stations that will be able to host not only its professional astronauts but also commercial visitors.

Four projects have received funding from NASA’s Commercial LEO Development Program, including Axiom Space, the company that launched the Ax-1 mission. Axiom has partnered with avant-garde interior designer Philippe Starck to work on its Axiom Station. Another funded project, Starlab by Voyager Space and its subsidiary Nanoracks, has partnered with Hilton to develop astronaut accommodations.

Three of the four companies are expecting to launch their space stations by the end of the decade, but as space programs go, delays are highly likely. (NASA’s current Artemis program, for instance, was hoping to land humans on the moon in 2024, but that deadline has been pushed back to at least 2025.) Still, the future is bright for space tourism and certainly within the realm of reality—all we have to do is wait. And for travelers who have always wished to be among the stars, that wait will be worth it.

Want to become a space tourist? You finally can — if you have $250,000 and a will to sign your life away

Senior Lecturer, ANU College of Law; Mission Specialist, ANU Institute for Space, Australian National University

Disclosure statement

Cassandra Steer is a member of the Space Industry Association of Australia.

Australian National University provides funding as a member of The Conversation AU.

View all partners

Billionaire Jeff Bezos’s space launch company Blue Origin has announced it will sell its first flights into microgravity to the highest bidder.

Blue Origin and its two greatest competitors in the “space tourism” field, SpaceX and Virgin Galactic , claim to be advancing humanity through the “democratisation” of space. But these joyrides aren’t opening up access to space for all.

A changing landscape

At face value, the prospect of a space tourism industry is exciting.

It promises an easier path to space than the one followed by astronauts, who must go through higher education, intense training and extremely competitive selection processes. Astronauts must also have the right nationality, because few countries have access to human spaceflight programs.

In theory, the opening up of a commercial spaceflight industry should make space more accessible and democratic. But this is only partly the case; what was once the domain of only the richest countries is now an industry headed predominantly by commercial entities.

Adding to this, these companies are prepared to take more risks than government programs because they don’t have to justify their spending — or failures — to the public. Blue Origin and SpaceX have seen many explosions in past tests, yet fans watch with excitement rather than dismay.

This has pushed the rapid development of space technologies. Reusable rockets — particularly SpaceX’s Falcon 9, which just made its tenth successful launch — have reduced the cost of launching tenfold.

Besides driving down costs, reusable technology is also working to solve the problem of sustainability.

Considering sustainability

There have been thousands of launches since 1957, when the first human-made object (Sputnik I) was launched by the Soviets. Apart from Falcon 9, however, every single launch vehicle has been used once and disposed of immediately — akin to throwing away an aeroplane after one flight.

Launch numbers are increasing each year, with 114 carried out in 2020 alone . Over the weekend, the uncontrolled reentry of debris from China’s Long March 5B rocket made world news because of its sheer size and the risk of damage. It is just one example of the problems of space debris and traffic management.

Safety is a key issue for human spaceflight. Currently, there are about 3,400 operational satellites in orbit and about 128 million pieces of debris . There are are hundreds of collision risks each day, avoided by expensive and difficult manoeuvres or, if the risk is low enough, operators wait and hope for the best.

If we add more human spaceflight to this traffic, countries will need to adopt stricter requirements to de-orbit satellites at the end of their lives, so they burn up on reentry. Currently, it’s acceptable to de-orbit after 25 years, or to put a satellite into an unused orbit. But this only delays the problem for the future.

Nations will also need to implement the 2019 United Nations guidelines on the Long-term Sustainability of Activities in Outer Space .

Read more: Space can solve our looming resource crisis – but the space industry itself must be sustainable

The environmental impact of launches are another important factor. SpaceX’s Falcon 9 burns as much fuel as an average car would over 200 years , for a single launch.

On the ground there are impacts on terrain and waterways, which we have to keep in mind when building future launch sites in Australia. Launch permits currently require environmental impact statements , but these should include long-term effects and carbon footprints as well.

Keeping billionaires in check

In the coming years , it will be crucial for independent spaceflight companies to be tightly regulated.

Virgin Galactic has long advocated a “ shirtsleeve ” environment wherein customers can experience the luxury of spaceflight unhindered by awkward spacesuits. But the death of one of its test pilots in 2014 is evidence spaceflight remains dangerous . High altitudes and pressure require more precaution and less concern for comfort.

Although regulators such as the US Federal Aviation Administration have strict safety requirements for space tourism, pressurised spacesuits are not among them — but they should be. Also, space tourism operators can require passengers to sign legal waivers of liability, in case of accident.

And while it’s laudable SpaceX and Blue Origin are making technological leaps, there is little in their business plans that speaks to diversity, inclusivity and global accessibility . The first space tourists were all wealthy entrepreneurs.

In 2001 Dennis Tito paid his way to a seat on a Russian Soyuz rocket to visit the International Space Station (ISS). Since then, there have been eight more space tourists , each paying between US$20 million and US$30 million to fly through the Russian program.

In 2022, the Axiom crew is scheduled to fly on a SpaceX Dragon flight to the ISS. Each of the three wealthy, white, male passengers will have paid US$55 million for the privilege. Meanwhile, Blue Origin’s upcoming auction will last five weeks, the highest bidder winning a seat for a few minutes of microgravity.

Virgin Galactic’s 90-minute joyrides, also scheduled to fly as early as 2022, have already sold for US$250,000 . Future tickets are expected to cost more.

A matter of time?

Of course, conventional recreational air travel was also originally for the wealthy . Early cross-continental flights in the United States costed about half the price of a new car. But technological advances and commercial competition meant by 2019 (pre-COVID) there were nearly five million people flying daily .

Perhaps it’s only a matter of time before space tourism becomes similarly accessible. Ideally, this would mean being able to fly from Sydney to London in a matter of hours .

Then again, spaceflight carries much greater risks and much greater costs than airflight, even with reusable rockets. It’s going to be a long time before these costs are driven down enough to allow the “democratisation” of space.

This is a compelling narrative which commercial spaceflight companies are eager to adopt. But there will always be a portion of society that won’t have access to this future. Indeed, as many science-fiction stories predict, human spaceflight or habitation in space may only ever be accessible to the very wealthy.

We know there are benefits to space-based technologies — from tracking climate change, to enabling global communications and health services, to learning from scientific experiments on the ISS. But when it comes to space tourism specifically, the payback for the average person is less clear.

Read more: Yuri Gagarin's boomerang: the tale of the first person to return from space, and his brief encounter with Aussie culture

• Space travel
• Commercial space travel
• Space tourism
• Space debris
• Commercial spaceflight

Lecturer (Hindi-Urdu)

Executive Dean, Faculty of Health

Regional Engagement Officer - Shepparton

Lecturer/Senior Lecturer, Earth System Science (School of Science)

Sydney Horizon Educators (Identified)

You are using an outdated browser. Please upgrade your browser to improve your experience.

The Future of Space Tourism

Where we are now.

The idea of Space Tourism feels like something out of a futuristic sci-fi film but the reality is that it’s been around for almost 20 years. Some may recall American businessman, Dennis Tito, becoming the first civilian tourist to visit the International Space Station in 2001. Tito’s trip to space cost him a colossal 20 million dollars, meaning at that price, going into space would remain a dream only to be experienced through films and stories for most of us.

The concept of space tourism evokes a sense of awe and wonder, igniting excitement and fascination within us. This burgeoning industry has gained momentum in recent years, and for valid reasons. For generations, the idea of journeying beyond the confines of Earth’s atmosphere into the boundless expanse of space has captivated the human imagination. With recent technological progress, this aspiration is no longer limited to astronauts and scientists alone, and the prospect of it is enough to entice anyone.

A 20 million dollar space holiday?

Space tourism may seem like a luxury only afforded by the super-rich, but it’s not just about money. It’s an opportunity for anyone to experience something truly unique, awe-inspiring and life-changing. The appeal of space tourism is undeniable, a chance to see the world from a completely different perspective, to feel weightlessness and witness the beauty of our planet from a distance.

According to recent surveys, interest in space tourism is not limited to the wealthy, with 38% of luxury travellers expressing interest in taking a space flight for recreational purposes. Among luxury travellers aged 16-34, that figure rises to an astounding 58%.

The mere thought of space tourism can evoke a sense of wonder and excitement. For many, it’s a chance to realise childhood dreams and experience something that was once unimaginable. It’s a chance to leave behind the mundane and experience the extraordinary. The possibilities of space tourism are endless, from suborbital flights to orbital flights, to staying in space hotels and even commercial space stations.

In this article, we will delve into the world of space tourism, exploring its history, current state, key players and what the future may hold. We will discuss the benefits and challenges of space tourism, its impact on society and the economy, and the ethical and environmental concerns that come with it. So, buckle up and prepare for lift-off as we embark on a journey to the final frontier.

The Space Tourism Market

The government end-user segment is also expected to grow at a CAGR of 37% from 2022 to 2030. In the United States, North America led the overall market in 2022, with a market share of 38.6%. The region has a well-established infrastructure that has allowed for the speedier implementation of modern technologies, and the presence of an extensive research and development base.

There are two types of space tourism: sub-orbital and orbital.

Suborbital Spaceflight

The sub-orbital segment dominated the market in 2022, accounting for 49.3% of the overall market share and aims to reach an altitude of over 300,000 feet, reaching the Karman line, which is the benchmark to define where outer space begins. Currently there are two major players competing in this field, Virgin Galactic, part of Richard Branson’s empire and Blue Origin, run by Amazon’s billionaire founder Jeff Bezos. Both of the companies’ systems are rocket-powered and capable of carrying up to six passengers on a flight. Virgin has completed four successful flights however recently filed for bankruptcy after failing to find funding, Blue origin however has now flown 32 passengers on the New Sheppard alongside a number of uncrewed flights carrying payloads onboard.

Orbital Spaceflight

Unlike suborbital spaceflight which gives passengers a few minutes in space at an altitude of 300,000 feet, orbital spaceflight goes much further than this. Passengers are likely to spend between a few days in space up to over a week at an altitude of over 1.3 million feet. The final quarter of 2021 is likely to be a huge for tourists in orbital spaceflight, with two major companies Space Adventures and Axiom Space announcing up to nine seats to orbit available for purchase by either individuals or organizations.

The sub-orbital segment dominated the market in 2022, accounting for 49.3% of the overall market share. The orbital segment, on the other hand, is expected to witness the fastest growth of 41.0% throughout the forecast period. The demand for space tourism is expected to continue to grow in the coming years, as the cost of space travel decreases and more people become interested in the experience.

Current Space Tourism Competitors and Missions

Whilst still relatively new the space tourism industry already has several key players:

• Blue Origin
• Space Adventure
• Zero 2 Infinity
• Space Perspective

These companies are working to develop new technologies and services that will make space travel more accessible and affordable for a broader market.

More recently NASA  funded three companies to develop commercial space stations, totaling $415M. Blue Origin received $130 million, Nanoracks received $160 million, and Northrop Grumman Systems Corporation received $125.6 million. These developments help support growing demand for space tourism, providing the necessary infrastructure to support it.

Where is Space Tourism Booming?

North America is leading the way in the space tourism market, with a well-established infrastructure and an extensive research and development base. Europe, although behind America in the market, is also showing potential in the space tourism industry, with the U.K. government pledging £2 million to fund horizontal space launches from the country. The U.K. has emerged as a region leader for spaceports, which could then transition into more opportunities for space tourism in Europe. However, the COVID-19 pandemic and the war in Ukraine have been detrimental to building the European space tourism market, with space activities and funding being diverted elsewhere. To keep up with the US, Europe needs to scale launch capabilities

Why is Space Tourism expected to be so popular?

Going to space provides an opportunity to witness the beauty of the Earth from a completely different perspective. It allows one to see the planet as a whole, and to appreciate the fragile and interconnected nature of all life on Earth. The experience of weightlessness and the sensation of floating in space is also something that very few people have ever experienced, which makes it an incredible and unforgettable experience.

Choosing to go to space over an expensive holiday on Earth is a personal decision, but it offers a once-in-a-lifetime experience that cannot be replicated elsewhere. It provides an opportunity to break free from the monotony of everyday life and to embark on a truly unique adventure that can inspire personal growth and self-discovery. Furthermore, it offers an opportunity to contribute to the advancement of space exploration, science, and technology, which has the potential to benefit all of humanity in the long run.

But space tourism is not without its challenges…

While space tourism offers exciting opportunities, there are also some potential drawbacks and negative effects to consider.

Environmental Impact: Space tourism can have a negative impact on the environment. Launching spacecraft and rockets require a lot of energy and can produce significant amounts of air and noise pollution. These emissions can contribute to climate change and harm the atmosphere.

Safety Concerns: Space travel is still a dangerous endeavor, and accidents can happen. Despite safety protocols, there is always the risk of something going wrong, and the consequences of a mishap could be catastrophic.

Cost: At present, space tourism is an expensive venture that is accessible only to the wealthy. As a result, many people will not be able to experience space travel, which can create feelings of inequality and elitism.

Space Debris: Every launch of a spacecraft generates debris that can stay in orbit for many years, and as the number of space launches increases, the amount of debris grows. This debris can cause problems for other spacecraft, and even small debris can cause damage.

Resource Depletion: Space travel requires a vast amount of resources, including energy, fuel, and materials. The depletion of these resources could have long-term consequences and could negatively impact the environment and the availability of resources for future generations.

Legal Issues: The legal framework for space tourism is still evolving, and it is unclear who will be held responsible if something goes wrong. There are also concerns about the impact of space tourism on international space laws and treaties.

The industry must ensure safety and sustainability, avoiding the mistakes of the past and building a foundation for the future. Including continuing to invest in research and development and ensuring that space travel becomes more accessible and affordable for all.

So What’s Next?

Space hotels.

Plans involving orbital spaceflight will require tourists to stay at the International Space Station, the only habitable structure in space at the moment but many companies are looking beyond this. Space hotels are likely to be the next venture for many to support the space tourism sector. One company, Orion Span , has developed plans for the first-ever “affordable” luxury space hotel called ‘Aurora station’. Orion Span is looking to launch in 2021 and start welcoming guests in 2022. This doesn’t mean the opportunity will be available to many of us with the expected cost of a 12-day stay on the ‘Aurora station’ coming to $9.5 million, quite literally a price that’s out of this world. Still, that’s a lot less than orbital tourists have paid in the past, as all of the seven private citizens that took trips to ISS each payed an estimated $20 million to $40 million per trip.

One small step for hotels … one giant leap for hotel life. Not only are space companies looking to venture into space hotels but giant hotel booking company Hotels.com. Launching the first online travel site, ‘offering future hotel bookings in space and reward earthlings with the ultimate out of this world travel escape’. Featuring space robes and slippers, intergalactic room service, solar lobbies, holographic wake-up calls, meteor mini bar, zero gravity space deck, pool and bar, which have all been imagined through beautiful renders of a space hotel on their galactic booking website.

Whilst space hotels like this may be a long way off until then there’s plenty of options to have an out of this world experience in one of these space themed hotels. Here’s our top five:

Top 5 Space Theme Hotels on Earth

The website says : Experience the feeling of flying among the stars as you enjoy the comfort of your Serenity Latex Mattress, specially designed for your spaceship bed. The triangular whirlpool bath glows softly under the stars from a multitude of different galaxies as you enjoy watching movies on your Plasma Screen Television. The DVD provided ensures you can watch all the Star Wars movies you’re able to while staying with us.

The steam shower is equipped with the “Raindancer Shower” which is almost as good as having a masseuse in the room with you. Your wet bar comes complete with a microwave, refrigerator and coffeemaker so you will not have to leave your spaceship until you are done exploring the universe and are ready to return to Earth! Your mission, should you decide to accept it, is to enjoy your outer space experience and boldly go where no others have gone before.

Outer space room with Seaview balcony at Gold Coast Hotel, Hong Kong

The website says: Journey to a different galaxy in the Outer Space Room, where different planets hang from a ceiling of stars and a full space mural encourages a voyage for both the young and the young at heart. Little guests can sleep and play in their miniature bed, while adults can seek much-deserved rest in a giant crater bed.

Fantasy Land Hotel, Edmonton, Alberta, Canada

The website says: 5, 4, 3, 2, 1, Blast-off! Explore the universe in our new Space Theme room and enjoy the amenities.

Pengheng Space Capsules Hotel, Shenzhen, China

Offering what is likely the most of the this world experience, this hotel pushes the boundaries of design and futurism. This exciting space themed hotel has done away with rooms and features a sleeping capsule mimicking life in space. Not only this, the hotel is staffed entirely by robots so maybe the designs fromHotel.com aren’t so farfetched after all!

The Executive suite at the Kameha Grand Zurich Hotel, Switzerland

Spotlight On Chris Watson-Bell

Spotlight on natasha fletcher, the disruptors shaping smallsat technologies.

20 đề Đánh giá năng lực ĐHQG Hà Nội tặng sách Tự học bất kì

25 đề Đánh giá năng lực ĐHQG TP.HCM Tặng sách Tự học bất kì

Combo Câu hỏi lý thuyết trọng tâm Vật lý & Hoá học tặng sổ tay Toán

Combo Sách Bộ đề Khối A (Toán - Lý - Hóa)

Combo Sách Bộ đề Khối C (Văn - Sử - Địa)

Luyện thi IELTS 5.5+

Do space tourists really understand the risk they're taking?

Who makes sure space tourists get back safe? Space tourism industry representatives argue that stringent safety oversight would hamper the companies' ability to innovate.

Space tourism vehicles just might be the only transportation technology out there with the potential to kill humans that doesn't need to undergo independent safety certification. For now, aspiring space travelers seem okay with that, but is the fledgling industry playing a dangerous game?

The four private astronauts of SpaceX's Inspiration4 mission —  the first-ever all-civilian flight to orbit — seemed relaxed a day before their Sept. 15 launch as they pondered the prospect of blasting off into nothingness sealed inside a space capsule, atop a rocket filled with explosive fuel.

Jared Isaacman , the tech entrepreneur who funded the mission and also served as its commander, claimed the crew was probably at a higher risk of an accident during the fighter jet flights they had taken during their training. 

"Over the past couple of days, we've been tearing up the sky in fighter jets, which I put at a relatively higher risk than this mission," Isaacman said. "So we are nice and comfortable as we get strapped into [the Dragon Crew capsule]."

Related: Humanity needs a space-rescue capability, report stresses

How dangerous are rocket flights? 

But how high exactly is the risk of dying during a space mission? Phil McAlister, director of commercial spaceflight for NASA, told the NBC's Today show on Sept. 15 that a ride on SpaceX's Crew Dragon capsule is about three times safer than a ride on NASA's space shuttle was in the final years of its operation, a time when shuttle flights were at their safest due to increases in inspections and awareness. 

"We were able to incorporate some additional technologies. The Dragon system has an abort capability that we didn't have," McAlister told the Today show. "That has all increased the likelihood that you will have a successful mission."

Get the Space.com Newsletter

Breaking space news, the latest updates on rocket launches, skywatching events and more!

But what exactly does that mean? Teri Hamlin, the technical lead of space shuttle probabilistic risk assessment at NASA's Johnson Space Center in Houston, told National Public Radio in 2011 that, in the early days, the risk of a space shuttle flight ending in a disaster was a scary 1-in-9 flights. 

By the time the shuttle retired in 2011, the fleet having lost two of its vehicles in catastrophic accidents, the risk had dropped tenfold, to about 1in 90. If that number and McAlister's extrapolation are correct, the probability of a catastrophic failure on Inspiration4 were about 1-in-300. (In practice, NASA suffered two fatal accidents in 135 shuttle flights, with the 1986 Challenger accident and 2003 Columbia tragedy killing seven astronauts each.)

Compare that with the 1-in-205,552 lifetime risk of an average American dying in an aircraft accident, according to data from the National Safety Council . On the other hand, the lifetime risk of dying in a car accident in the U.S. is 1 in 107, according to the same source.

Yet many experts warn that something unprecedented is going on in the space tourism industry that might increase the odds of aspiring space tourists dying in a crash.

Accountable to no one

"The problem is that the current space tourism industry neither has government [safety] regulation nor their own regulation," Tommaso Sgobba, executive director at the International Association for the Advancement of Space Safety (IAASS) and former head of flight safety at the European Space Agency (ESA), told Space.com. "Neither do they have any historical record to prove that their technology is safe."

No modern appliance or device — from hair dryers and microwaves to cars, aircraft and rollercoasters — can enter the market without first receiving a certification from an independent body that its design meets independently set safety standards. These certifications are there to ensure that effort has been made to minimize the risk that these technologies will injure their users and that someone independent from the company thinks they are safe.

But a U.S. Congress moratorium on safety regulations established in 2004 means that space tourism companies are less accountable than you might think. 

"The moratorium was put in place to let the industry learn and progress following some very successful lobbying from the industry," Josef Koller, systems director at the center for space policy and strategy at The Aerospace Corporation, told Space.com. "The law specifies that emphasis should be placed on developing best practices and voluntary standards that could eventually lead to the implementation of regulation. But so far there is not much to go around really."

Currently, the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) requires commercial space companies to demonstrate that their operations present no risk to the public on the ground (or in the air space). The agency, however, has no oversight over the safety of the flight participants, nor does it certify the launch and entry vehicles as safe for humans, an FAA spokesperson told Space.com in an email. 

"Under federal law, the FAA’s commercial space transportation oversight responsibilities are designed to protect the safety of the public on the ground and other members of the public using the national airspace system — not the individuals in the space vehicle," Steve Kulm, FAA public affairs specialist, said in the email. "In fact, Congress has prohibited the FAA from regulating the safety of the crew or spaceflight participants. Further, Congress has not authorized the FAA to certify the launch or reentry vehicle as safe for carrying humans."

Companies, however, have to prove that their technology worked safely during a test flight to gain FAA license approval to carry humans, Kulm added. 

Stifling innovation 

Karina Drees, the president of the Commercial Spaceflight Federation, which represents space tourism companies, told Space.com that early regulation could stifle innovation in the fledgling sector and prevent the best technologies from being developed. 

"That's the concern I think a lot of folks have," she said. "If we see regulation a little too soon, then there's a real potential for the best technologies to not come forward. The vehicles that have been designed today are quite different from each other. And so if regulation had been written on any one style, then that would have really prevented some of these designs from coming to the market."

Today's space tourists therefore sign informed consent in which they accept whatever might happen during the mission. 

"That's one of the things that makes this country [the U.S.] great: the ability to make your own choices," Drees said. "Americans can choose whether to go scuba diving, which isn't heavily regulated, they can choose to go skydiving, they can choose to have elective surgeries. All of these things are under the same type of informed-consent requirements."

Early aviation's 'tombstone technology' 

Danielle Bernstein, principal director for federal programs at The Aerospace Corporation, told Space.com that the situation in the commercial human spaceflight sector is similar to that of the early decades of aviation. 

"When the Wright brothers finally figured out flying and into the 1910s and 1920s, we didn't have much commercial flight," Bernstein said. "It was more military and exploratory. But then you move later into the century and there was more of it. But still, there wasn't a lot of regulations. And so there were accidents."

The approach taken by the early aviation pioneers is sometimes described as fly-fix-fly or, as Sgobba says, "tombstone technology."

"They would build the machine, fly it, wait for an accident to happen, investigate it, and if they found a problem with the technology, they would learn from it and fix it," said Sgobba. 

He added that, unlike the early aviators, space tourism companies are not building a technology from scratch. Government-funded agencies such as NASA or Russia's space agency Roscosmos have accumulated decades of experience managing the risk associated with flying things (and people) to space. 

The questions 

"The approach that has been in place in the space industry for the last maybe 40 years is focused on performance requirements and fault tolerance," Sgobba said. "For example, your design should never allow a single human error to cause a disaster. But if you look at the 2014 Virgin Galactic crash , that's exactly what happened."

On Oct. 31, 2014, a Virgin Galactic test flight operated by the company's contractor Scaled Composites, suffered a fatal crash when its SpaceShipTwo vehicle, called Enterprise, broke apart during a rocket-powered phase of the flight. One pilot was killed and another seriously injured.

In a subsequent investigation , the U.S. National Transportation Safety Board found that the Virgin Galactic crash was caused by the early release of SpaceShipTwo's feathering tail, which is designed to slow down and stabilize the craft during its descent through Earth's atmosphere . 

During Virgin Galactic's triumphant first fully crewed spaceflight this past July, which carried billionaire owner Richard Branson on board, the company's VSS Unity space plane deviated from its approved trajectory into the surrounding air space, where it could potentially have jeopardized civilians flying on commercial aircraft. 

The incident led the FAA to essentially ground Virgin Galactic until an investigation is completed. The company therefore had to suspend its planned second fully crewed flight , which was supposed to take place in late September or early October. The company is now selling tickets for its flights to suborbital space for $450,000 per seat . 

Sgobba questions whether the excitement of a space trip would be enough for enthusiasts (and a lot of bored rich people) if some of these "ordinary citizens" were to perish during their adventure.

"I think that once civilians start dying, the market for space tourism will evaporate," Sgobba said. "Just like it evaporated for Concorde . Concorde was a luxurious version for going from Paris to New York. But once it had an accident, people lost interest. The companies fixed the problem, but the interest was no longer there."

Independent reviews

Virgin Galactic's space plane is, according to Sgobba, inherently more dangerous than a capsule such as Blue Origin 's New Shepard or SpaceX 's Crew Dragon. The reliance on the human factor is higher, and it is impossible to perform tests without human pilots inside. 

"Virgin Galactic is more problematic, because there is always a problem when there are safety-critical mechanisms in place," Sgobba said. "It could be a helicopter or another aircraft concept; there is always a higher risk when there are large moving parts that you rely on to accomplish your mission to be safe. That doesn't mean that you cannot operate something like the Virgin Galactic feathering tail safely, but there definitely needs to be extra effort to make this safe."

Blue Origin shares information about its approach to safety in a video on its website. The company stresses a multiply redundant approach that should ensure that no critical system can break down without a backup being available, Blue Origin representatives said. 

SpaceX benefited during the development of its crewed system from cooperation with NASA. The company has a contract to fly NASA astronauts to and from the International Space Station, so it has to meet the space agency's rigorous safety standards. 

Still, Sgobba questions some of SpaceX's practices. 

"For the Inspiration4 mission, they replaced a docking port on the Dragon crew capsule with this beautiful cupola ," Sgobba said. "But my question is, who, independent from the project, reviewed this change to make sure it's safe?"

Before NASA, ESA or the other space agencies launch anything into space, they conduct flight readiness reviews, Sgobba explained. The independence of the panel conducting the review is a key requirement to making its findings valid. During such a review, every part is scrutinized to minimize the chance that problems will occur. 

"But who was in charge of reviewing the changes they made for the Inspiration4 mission?" said Sgobba. "Was it just Elon Musk giving his approval? That would be the first case in the history of technologically advanced industries when a single person, the owner, has the final word on an activity like this."

Again, in the current regulatory environment, there is no one to ask questions about such procedures.

What's next?

- Private astronauts are not 'space tourists' (op-ed)

- SpaceX's private Inspiration4 astronauts had some toilet trouble in space

- Inspiration4 astronauts to conduct health research on private SpaceX mission

The 2004 U.S. Congress moratorium on the safety regulation of space tourism is set to expire in 2023. But what exactly will happen next is still unclear. 

The Commercial Spaceflight Federation has been cooperating with standards organization ASTM International on guidelines and has already published recommendations on fault tolerance, data exchange to support the integration of space operations into air traffic management and classification of safety events, said Drees.

When asked whether the industry would be ready for more stringent regulations after 2023, she said she doesn't think so. It's still the early days, and regulation would impede innovation, she said. 

For the foreseeable future, aspiring space tourists, or spaceflight participants, will have to trust the companies that they want to fly with. To help the customers make the decision whether to sign the informed consent waiver, the companies are obliged to disclose their safety record, and Drees believes everybody is ready to do so.

"It's really in the company's best interest to make sure they're disclosing in pretty clear terms the track record of the vehicle, because they want their companies to be ongoing for years to come," Drees said. "There's really no incentive for the companies to not disclose any of that information. And there's no incentive for the companies to take shortcuts to not practice safely."

Some might question how justified such trust in those companies really is. Bank of America, which covers Virgin Galactic's publicly traded stock, last week criticized the company's failure to disclose that VSS Unity veered off course during the July flight, the incident that led to the grounding by the FAA. 

Sgobba, in the meantime, calls for a more "mature" approach and, together with other industry veterans like Koller and Bernstein, proposes the creation of a new independent body for the safety of commercial spaceflight operations, the Space Safety Institute.

"The Space Safety Institute would serve as an independent reviewer," Sgobba said. "It would also focus on education and research in critical areas of space systems' safety."

Koller added: "The Space Safety Institute would provide a platform where people and entities could come together and discuss ways of accomplishing their goals. If a company has a new idea, it's important to provide support and technical analysis on whether the system can actually achieve that goal and be safe."

Drees said the commercial spaceflight industry might be supportive of such an idea, as long as it doesn't inhibit its ability to innovate. 

"That's going to be really critical to the future of the industry— that we don't write standards and regulations before we have that opportunity to innovate and design new vehicles," she said. "So, as long as we still have that opportunity to design and build and fly the vehicles without being subject to stringent regulations right from the start, then I think industry is generally supportive of that idea."

  This article was updated on Sept. 30, 2021, to reflect that the Virgin Galactic test flight was not operated by the company itself but by its contractor Scaled Composites.

Follow Tereza Pultarova on Twitter @TerezaPultarova . Follow us on Twitter @Spacedotcom and on Facebook . 

Join our Space Forums to keep talking space on the latest missions, night sky and more! And if you have a news tip, correction or comment, let us know at: [email protected].

Tereza is a London-based science and technology journalist, aspiring fiction writer and amateur gymnast. Originally from Prague, the Czech Republic, she spent the first seven years of her career working as a reporter, script-writer and presenter for various TV programmes of the Czech Public Service Television. She later took a career break to pursue further education and added a Master's in Science from the International Space University, France, to her Bachelor's in Journalism and Master's in Cultural Anthropology from Prague's Charles University. She worked as a reporter at the Engineering and Technology magazine, freelanced for a range of publications including Live Science, Space.com, Professional Engineering, Via Satellite and Space News and served as a maternity cover science editor at the European Space Agency.

SpaceX launches 23 Starlink satellites from Florida

SpaceX's 30th Dragon cargo mission departs the ISS, heads home to Earth

Mars exploration, new rockets and more: Interview with ESA chief Josef Aschbacher

Most Popular

• 2 Everything we know about James Gunn's Superman
• 3 Sneak peek: Browncoats grab victory in Boom! Studios' upcoming 'Firefly: 'Verses' comic (exclusive)
• 4 SpaceX launches 23 Starlink satellites from Florida
• 5 NASA's mission to an ice-covered moon will contain a message between water worlds

Space Tourism: Can A Civilian Go To Space?

2021 has been a busy year for private space tourism: overall, more than 15 civilians took a trip to space during this year. In this article, you will learn more about the space tourism industry, its history, and the companies that are most likely to make you a space tourist.

What is space tourism?

Brief history of space tourism, space tourism companies, orbital and suborbital space flights, how much does it cost for a person to go to space, is space tourism worth it, can i become a space tourist, why is space tourism bad for the environment.

Space tourism is human space travel for recreational or leisure purposes . It’s divided into different types, including orbital, suborbital, and lunar space tourism.

However, there are broader definitions for space tourism. According to the Space Tourism Guide , space tourism is a commercial activity related to space that includes going to space as a tourist, watching a rocket launch, going stargazing, or traveling to a space-focused destination.

The first space tourist was Dennis Tito, an American multimillionaire, who spent nearly eight days onboard the International Space Station in April 2001. This trip cost him $20 million and made Tito the first private citizen who purchased his space ticket. Over the next eight years, six more private citizens followed Tito to the International Space Station to become space tourists.

As space tourism became a real thing, dozens of companies entered this industry hoping to capitalize on renewed public interest in space, including Blue Origin in 2000 and Virgin Galactic in 2004. In the 2000s, space tourists were limited to launches aboard Russian Soyuz aircraft and only could go to the ISS. However, everything changed when the other players started to grow up on the market. There are now a variety of destinations and companies for travels to space.

There are now six major space companies that are arranging or planning to arrange touristic flights to space:

• Virgin Galactic;
• Blue Origin;
• Axiom Space;
• Space Perspective.

While the first two are focused on suborbital flights, Axiom and Boeing are working on orbital missions. SpaceX, in its turn, is prioritizing lunar tourism in the future. For now, Elon Musk’s company has allowed its Crew Dragon spacecraft to be chartered for orbital flights, as it happened with the Inspiration4 3-day mission . Space Perspective is developing a different balloon-based system to carry customers to the stratosphere and is planning to start its commercial flights in 2024.

Orbital and suborbital flights are very different. Taking an orbital flight means staying in orbit; in other words, going around the planet continually at a very high speed to not fall back to the Earth. Such a trip takes several days, even a week or more. A suborbital flight in its turn is more like a space hop — you blast off, make a huge arc, and eventually fall back to the Earth, never making it into orbit. A flight duration, in this case, ranges from 2 to 3 hours.

Here is an example: a spaceflight takes you to an altitude of 100 km above the Earth. To enter into orbit — make an orbital flight — you would have to gain a speed of about 28,000 km per hour (17,400 mph) or more. But to reach the given altitude and fall back to the Earth — make a suborbital flight — you would have to fly at only 6,000 km per hour (3,700 mph). This flight takes less energy, less fuel; therefore, it is less expensive.

• Virgin Galactic: $250,000 for a 2-hour suborbital flight at an altitude of 80 km;
• Blue Origin: approximately $300,000 for 12 minutes suborbital flight at an altitude of 100 km;
• Axiom Space: $55 million for a 10-day orbital flight;
• Space Perspective: $125,000 for a 6-hour flight to the edge of space (32 km above the Earth).

The price depends, but remember that suborbital space flights are always cheaper.

What exactly do you expect from a journey to space? Besides the awesome impressions, here is what you can experience during such a trip:

• Weightlessness . Keep in mind that during a suborbital flight you’ll get only a couple of minutes in weightlessness, but it will be truly fascinating .
• Space sickness . The symptoms include cold sweating, malaise, loss of appetite, nausea, fatigue, and vomiting. Even experienced astronauts are not immune from it!
• G-force . 1G is the acceleration we feel due to the force of gravity; a usual g-force astronauts experience during a rocket launch is around 3gs. To understand how a g-force influences people , watch this video.

For now, the most significant barrier for space tourism is price. But air travel was also once expensive; a one-way ticket cost more than half the price of a new car . Most likely, the price for space travel will reduce overtime as well. For now, you need to be either quite wealthy or win in a competition, as did Sian Proctor, a member of Inspiration4 mission . But before spending thousands of dollars on space travel, here is one more fact you might want to consider.

Rocket launches are harmful to the environment in general. During the burning of rocket fuels, rocket engines release harmful gases and soot particles (also known as black carbon) into the upper atmosphere, resulting in ozone depletion. Think about this: in 2018 black-carbon-producing rockets emitted about the same amount of black carbon as the global aviation industry emits annually.

However, not all space companies use black carbon for fuel. Blue Origin’s New Shepard rocket has a liquid hydrogen-fuelled engine: hydrogen doesn’t emit carbon but simply turns into water vapor when burning.

The main reason why space tourism could be harmful to the environment is its potential popularity. With the rising amount of rocket launches the carbon footprint will only increase — Virgin Galactic alone aims to launch 400 of these flights annually. Meanwhile, the soot released by 1,000 space tourism flights could warm Antarctica by nearly 1°C !

Would you want to become a space tourist? Let us know your opinion on social media and share the article with your friends, if you enjoyed it! Also, the Best Mobile App Awards 2021 is going on right now, and we would very much appreciate it if you would vote for our Sky Tonight app . Simply tap "Vote for this app" in the upper part of the screen. No registration is required!