Space tourism
Space tourism refers to commercial space travel designed for recreational purposes, enabling private individuals to experience spaceflight. Originally a concept found in science fiction, it became a reality with significant advancements in space technology in the late 20th century. The journey of space tourism began in 2001 when Dennis Tito became the first space tourist, paying $20 million to visit the International Space Station (ISS). Space tourism is typically categorized into two types: orbital, where flights reach a stable orbit around Earth, and suborbital, which involves shorter flights that ascend into space before returning.
Various companies have emerged in this sector, with notable players including Virgin Galactic, SpaceX, and Blue Origin, each developing innovative spacecraft to offer suborbital and orbital flights. The costs for participating in such journeys are currently high, often exceeding $200,000 for suborbital flights, with orbital flights costing around $55 million. Despite the steep prices, there is a growing interest in space tourism, with surveys indicating a strong desire among the public to travel to space. However, the industry's rapid growth raises questions related to environmental impact, regulation, and equitable access, as this new frontier of travel remains primarily accessible to the wealthy.
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Space tourism
DEFINITION: Commercial space travel meant for recreation
Space tourism, a notion once found only in the plots of science-fiction books and movies, became increasingly possible with the rapid advances in space travel during the late twentieth century. At the dawn of the new millennium, the first space tourist was launched into orbit. Interest in commercial space travel grew and flights into space became available to those who could afford the high cost.
In 2001, American businessman Dennis Tito paid $20 million to travel into space to visit the International Space Station (ISS). The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) had many concerns about Tito’s trip, but eventually international space officials and the private space travel firm Space Adventures reached an agreement. On April 28, 2001, Tito became the first space tourist. Space Adventures subsequently launched several other paying individuals into space.
Space tourism is classified as either orbital or suborbital. Orbital space flights such as Tito’s trip travel high enough into space to achieve orbit around the Earth. Suborbital space flight does not travel as far, but ascends into space and then returns to Earth. Suborbital flight has been deemed the most marketable venture for the space tourism industry. Many suborbital flight projects were in the works by the end of the 1990s. In 2004, Virgin Mobile founder Richard Branson’s commercial space company, Virgin Galactic, began developing plans for suborbital passenger flights that reached sixty-two miles above Earth at a price of $200,000 per ticket. According to an article in Fortune magazine, more than $3.3 billion was invested in commercial space companies in the United States in 2015.
Several wealthy entrepreneurs, recognizing the potential for orbital space travel, set about financing their own space tourism projects. SpaceX, a private space travel firm founded by entrepreneur Elon Musk, sought to revolutionize space travel by developing its own rockets, with an overall goal of transporting people to other planets. The company made a major step in 2012 when its Dragon spacecraft became the first commercial vessel to bring a cargo load to the ISS. Jeff Bezos, a technology entrepreneur and the founder of the online marketplace Amazon, started the company Blue Origin to offer both orbital and suborbital flights. By the late 2010s it had tested its New Shepard rocket capable of carrying six passengers to the edge of orbit. In the United Kingdom, an unmanned test rocket, Skybolt 2, blasted off successfully on September 11, 2017, in Northumberland. The rocket was developed by Starchaser Industries, a space tourism business that was started by entrepreneur Steve Bennett in 1992. Starchaser continued to develop larger rockets that would have the capacity to carry systems, as well as tourists, into space. A different approach came from the Bloon project by the Spain-based company Zero 2 Infinity, which envisioned using balloons to give customers a near-space experience.
While most early efforts at orbital space tourism focused on bringing tourists to the already existing ISS, plans for hotels in space were also formulated. Robert Bigelow, founder of the hotel chain Budget Suites of America, began developing inflatable space habitats in early 2000. The first prototype, known as Genesis I, was launched in July 2006. More advanced prototypes meant to accommodate humans followed. The US company Orion Span also announced bookings for tourist stays at its planned Aurora Station space station, as well as the concept of "condominiums" that could be modularly attached to the orbiting station.
Through the 2010s, the major commercial space travel companies, particularly Virgin Galactic, SpaceX, and Blue Origin, competed to successfully test their technology and put their craft into active use. Other companies also emerged as the field of space tourism gradually became more feasible beyond the limited Space Adventures trips. SpaceX announced its intention to make the first tourist trip beyond low-Earth orbit with a voyage around the moon; the plan was delayed, but in 2018 the company named Japanese billionaire Yusaku Maezawa as its customer for the flight. Maezawa himself announced his intention to bring a number of artists with him on what was dubbed the "#dearMoon mission," with the goal of documenting and memorializing what would be a historic voyage.
In the 2020s, SpaceX became one of the first to schedule a tourist launch, for September 2021. The trip was funded by businessman Jared Isaacman. A second trip, funded by Axiom Space, was planned for 2022. Tickets for each trip were reported to cost about $55 million for both the flight and a stay at the International Space Station. In June 2021, Blue Origin auctioned a seat on its launch vehicle New Shepard alongside company owner Jeff Bezos. After Branson's SpaceShipTwo had detached from its carrier craft and reached suborbital space for the first time in 2018 and had then repeated the effort with its first test passenger in early 2019, Branson also scheduled a fully crewed flight for July 2021. Only days apart that month, both Virgin Galactic and Blue Origin's crafts made successful, brief trips to suborbital space with a full crew on board that included the companies' founders themselves. Though the seat on New Shepard had indeed been auctioned, after the anonymous winner had to drop out, it was announced that teenager Oliver Daemen, whose father, a leader of an investment management firm, reportedly funded the seat price, would be taking their place; in addition to Bezos and Daemen, the individuals on board the New Shepard included aviator Wally Funk, who was over eighty years old, and Bezos's brother Mark. Though Branson was credited with making the achievement first, both flights, which landed back on Earth without incident, drew great media and public interest as the appeal of space tourism had not wavered.
In 2022 New Shepard was grounded after a mid-flight failure during an uncrewed research mission. New Shepard returned to flight in December 2023 with and uncrewed mission. In May 2024, it launched a six-person crew, resuming its tourism business. In April 2023, SpaceShipTwo made its first spaceflight since the 2021 mission that carried Branson.
Impact
The growing space tourism industry made space travel available to private citizens for the first time. Initial space tourists still had to undergo special training due to the complexities and risks of spaceflight, but this was conducted in a matter of weeks rather than the years necessary to become a professional astronaut. Surveys have suggested that a majority of the population would like to participate in space travel, but the cost has limited participation to the wealthiest of people. Developers have expected the prices to fall as technology continues to advance, but for the foreseeable future costs will remain out of the reach of most people. Meanwhile, the high prices paid by early space tourists helped fund the further development of private space travel companies, opening the door to a new age of space development beyond the scope of government-funded ventures. While this commercialization presented many exciting opportunities, it also attracted concerns about issues such as environmental impact, legality and regulation, and economics.
Bibliography
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