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Space tourism

Space tourism is human space travel for recreational purposes.[1] There are several different types of space tourism, including orbital, suborbital and lunar space tourism. Tourists are motivated by the possibility of viewing Earth from space, feeling weightlessness, experiencing extremely high speed and something unusual, and contributing to science.[2]

This article is about paying space travellers. For other commercial spacefarers, see Commercial astronaut. For entrepreneurial space ventures and colonization, see Private spaceflight.

Space tourism started in April 2001, when American businessman and engineer Dennis Tito became the first ever space tourist to travel to space aboard a Soyuz-TM32 spacecraft. During the period from 2001 to 2009, seven space tourists made eight space flights aboard a Russian Soyuz spacecraft to the International Space Station, brokered by American company Space Adventures in conjunction with Roscosmos and RSC Energia. Iranian-American businesswoman Anousheh Ansari became the first ever female space tourist in September 2006. The publicized price was in the range of US$20–25 million per trip. Some space tourists have signed contracts with third parties to conduct certain research activities while in orbit. By 2007, space tourism was thought to be one of the earliest markets that would emerge for commercial spaceflight.[3]: 11 


Space tourists need to be in good physical form before going to space. In particular, they have to train for fast acceleration or g-forces in a centrifuge and weightlessness by flying in a high-altitude jet plane doing parabolic arcs. They may have to learn how to operate and even fix parts of the spaceship using simulators.


Russia halted orbital space tourism in 2010 due to the increase in the International Space Station crew size, using the seats for expedition crews that would previously have been sold to paying spaceflight participants.[4][5] Orbital tourist flights were set to resume in 2015 but the planned flight was postponed indefinitely.[6] Russian orbital tourism eventually resumed with the launch of Soyuz MS-20 in 2021.[7]


On June 7, 2019, NASA announced that starting in 2020, the organization aims to start allowing private astronauts to go on the International Space Station, with the use of the SpaceX Crew Dragon spacecraft and the Boeing Starliner spacecraft for public astronauts, which is planned to be priced at 35,000 USD per day for one astronaut,[8] and an estimated 50 million USD for the ride there and back.[9]


Work also continues towards developing suborbital space tourism vehicles. This is being done by aerospace companies like Blue Origin and Virgin Galactic. SpaceX announced in 2018 that they are planning on sending space tourists, including Yusaku Maezawa, on a free-return trajectory around the Moon on the Starship.[10][11]


In the future, space tourism might happen through space elevators, tourists might stay in luxury space hotels and spend vacation in a space colony (on the moon or on Mars).

won the $10 million X Prize in October 2004 with SpaceShipOne, as the first private company to reach and surpass an altitude of 100 km (62 mi) twice within two weeks. The altitude is beyond the Kármán Line, the arbitrarily-defined boundary of space.[24] The first flight was flown by Michael Melvill in June 2004, to a height of 100 km (62 mi), making him the first commercial astronaut.[25] The prize-winning flight was flown by Brian Binnie, which reached a height of 112.0 km (69.6 mi), breaking the X-15 record.[26] There were no space tourists on the flights even though the vehicle has seats for three passengers. Instead there was additional weight to make up for the weight of passengers.[27]

Scaled Composites

In 2005, was founded as a joint venture between Scaled Composites and Richard Branson's Virgin Group.[28] Eventually Virgin Group owned the entire project.[29] Virgin Galactic began building SpaceShipTwo-class spaceplanes. The first of these spaceplanes, VSS Enterprise, was intended to commence its first commercial flights in 2015, and tickets were on sale at a price of $200,000 (later raised to $250,000). However, the company suffered a considerable setback when the Enterprise broke up over the Mojave Desert during a test flight in October 2014. Over 700 tickets had been sold prior to the accident.[30] A second spaceplane, VSS Unity, completed a successful test flight with four passengers on July 11, 2021 to an altitude of nearly 90 km (56 mi).[31] Galactic 01 became the company's first commercial spaceflight on June 29, 2023.[32]

Virgin Galactic

developed the New Shepard reusable suborbital launch system specifically to enable short-duration space tourism. Blue Origin plans to ferry a maximum of six persons on a brief journey to space on board the New Shepard. The capsule is attached to the top portion of an 18-meter (59-foot) rocket. The rocket successfully launched with four passengers on July 20, 2021, and reached an altitude of 107 km (66 mi).[33]

Blue Origin

uses Crew Dragon flights contracted with SpaceX to send crews to the International Space Station.[49][50] Mission 1 flew in April 2022, Mission 2 flew in May 2023 and Mission 3 flew in January 2024. A fourth mission is planned for October 2024. Through these missions, NASA hopes to create a non-NASA market for human spaceflight to enable cost-sharing on future commercial space stations.

Axiom Space

The capsule is being developed as part of the NASA's Commercial Crew Program. Part of the agreement with NASA allows Boeing to sell seats for space tourists. Boeing proposed including one seat per flight for a spaceflight participant at a price that would be competitive with what Roscosmos charges tourists.[51][52]

Boeing Starliner

The : The commander and financier of the Inspiration4 mission, Jared Isaacman, announced plans for a three-mission program called Polaris in February 2022. The first mission, Polaris Dawn, will launch four private astronauts in a Crew Dragon spacecraft to earth orbit. Polaris Dawn will be a free-flyer mission in which the spacecraft will not perform any rendezvous maneuvers, instead aiming to surpass the all-time earth orbit altitude record of 1,373 kilometres set by Gemini XI. Polaris Dawn also seeks to include the first private Extravehicular activity (EVA). The last Polaris program mission is planned to be the first crewed flight of the in-development Starship launch system.

Polaris Program

A mission with a similar flight profile is planned to have the same flight profile as the now cancelled Dearmoon project, with and his wife Akiko Tito as two of the passengers.[58]

Dennis Tito

Ltd. have announced that they are working on DSE-Alpha, a circumlunar mission to the Moon, with the price per passenger being $100,000,000.[59]

Space Adventures

Criticism of the term space tourist[edit]

Many private space travelers have objected to the term space tourist, often pointing out that their role went beyond that of an observer, since they also carried out scientific experiments in the course of their journey. Richard Garriott additionally emphasized that his training was identical to the requirements of non-Russian Soyuz crew members, and that teachers and other non-professional astronauts chosen to fly with NASA are called astronauts. He has said that if the distinction has to be made, he would rather be called "private astronaut" than "tourist".[100] Mark Shuttleworth described himself as a "pioneer of commercial space travel".[101] Gregory Olsen prefers "private researcher",[102] and Anousheh Ansari prefers the term "private space explorer". Other advocates of private spaceflight object to the term on similar grounds. Rick Tumlinson of the Space Frontier Foundation, for example, has said: "I hate the word tourist, and I always will ... 'Tourist' is somebody in a flowered shirt with three cameras around his neck."[103] Russian cosmonaut Maksim Surayev told the press in 2009 not to describe Guy Laliberté as a tourist: "It's become fashionable to speak of space tourists. He is not a tourist but a participant in the mission."[104]


"Spaceflight participant" is the official term used by NASA and the Russian Federal Space Agency to distinguish between private space travelers and career astronauts. Tito, Shuttleworth, Olsen, Ansari, and Simonyi were designated as such during their respective space flights. NASA also lists Christa McAuliffe as a spaceflight participant (although she did not pay a fee), apparently due to her non-technical duties aboard the STS-51-L flight.


The US Federal Aviation Administration awards the title of "commercial astronaut" to trained crew members of privately funded spacecraft.

To experience something unique ( e.g. pioneering, one of a kind)

To see the view of Earth from space

To learn more about the world

Commercialization of space

Effect of spaceflight on the human body

Private spaceflight

Space flight participant

Sub-orbital spaceflight

Commercial astronaut

Abitzsch, Sven (May 15, 1996). . 9th European Aerospace Congress – Visions and Limits of Long-term Aerospace Developments. Aerospace Institute, Technical University of Berlin: Space Future Consulting.

Prospects of Space Tourism

(2009). Selling Peace: Inside the Soviet Conspiracy That Transformed the U.S. Space Program. Burlington, Ont: Apogee. ISBN 978-1-926592-08-4.

Manber, Jeffrey

Space travel guide from Wikivoyage

a documentary film by Christian Frei

Space Tourists

a non-profit research and advocacy group

Space Tourism Society