Recently updated on October 6th, 2022 at 04:42 pm
As we enter into the second decade of the 21st century, we’ve found ourselves in a different kind of space race to the pre-decessing century. Rather than countries battling for dominance over orbit, private companies are now competing to make space travel accessible to the public – potentially leading to 10-minute space holidays, orbiting space hotels and humans on Mars.
Throughout human spaceflight history, we’ve always believed that in order to reach the stars (literally) one must be a professional, career astronaut, who’s been hired and trained by government agencies from around the world. However, after decades of talk, it seems like we’re on the cusp of a new era by the way of commercial space exploration. With a number of public companies such as Virgin Galactic, SpaceX and Blue Origin to name a few developing spacecrafts capable of taking travellers beyond the Earth’s surface, it’s likely that we’ll see the launch of the space tourism industry in just a few, short years.
In this article, we’ll discuss the concept of space tourism and its role in the wider travel industry, as well as its history, the companies that will likely take you there and what space travel will look like.
What is Space Tourism?
Despite recent associations with space tourism meaning solely space travel, the concept of space tourism is, in fact, much broader than this.
To put it simply, space tourism is a style of travel that involves an interest in space. It includes visiting space museums, watching rocket launches, travelling to well known star-gazing areas, and of course, travelling into space for recreational purposes.
For the purpose of this article, the term ‘space tourism’ refers to the activity of commercial space travel.
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A Brief History of Space Tourism
While the concept of space travel may still sound futuristic, it’s actually been in practice for some time. Thus far, the Russian Space Agency is the only company that has successfully facilitated orbital space tourism, having taken seven travellers (all of whom paid millions of dollars to do so) into space in the early 2000s.
The Russian Space Agency ceased its operations in 2010, and since then, numerous private enterprises have begun pursuing space travel, resulting in some promising proposals for near-future travel.
4 Space Tourism Companies Who Can Take You To The Moon
As the concept of space travel grows, so too does the number of businesses engaging in related activities. For those who are keen to experience life as an astronaut for a day, these are the four companies that offer the best chance of turning that dream into a reality.
Virgin Galactic
Part of Richard Branson’s Virgin Group, the space travel offset, Virgin Galactic aims to provide regular suborbital flights for paying customers.The company already has an extensive waiting list of travellers ready to embark on space travel.
However, this is no cheap waiting list, as a deposit of £200,000 is required in order to secure a spot!
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SpaceX
The latest company to appear on the space tourism scene is Elon Musk’s SpaceX. Unlike other space travel companies, SpaceX are an experienced rocket launching company, that are now extending their operations to the commercial space.
Also differentiating from other space travel competition, SpaceX are prioritising luna tourism and other forms of space travel that extend beyond Earth’s orbit.
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Blue Origin
Founded by Jeff Bezos in 2000, Blue Origin intends on offering customers space holidays, similar to that of Virgin Galactic. While there’s been no firm date set for operation just yet, Blue Origin have said that their offering will be based around a traditional, vertical take-off rocket, known as the ‘New Shepard’.
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Boeing
Better known for their aircraft that stays within the Earth’s hemisphere, Boeing have also branched out into the space tourism industry. Having signed an agreement with NASA as part of the Commercial Crew Development Program, Boeing has emerged as a major player in the space travel scene. To this date, Boeing have developed a crew capsule, the Boeing CST-100 Starliner, providing them the opportunity to sell seats to space travellers in the future.
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How Much Will a Space Holiday Cost?
Despite being marketed as an everyday person’s holiday, you’ll need a hefty sum of cash in order to afford the ticket.
At current, Virgin Galactic is reportedly charging up to £200,000 for their trips. While Reuters have reported that Blue Origin will charge between £145,000 to £220,000. Included in the pricing is pre-departure training and equipment.
For now, trips into space are set to be short, lasting only a few hours. However, the intention for the future is to allow the opportunity to extend stays in space.
Where Can You Buy Tickets From?
Tickets for space travel will be bought like tickets for airlines; from ‘spacelines’. Spaceport America is the world’s first purpose-built commercial spaceport, and is currently home to Virgin Galactic’s SpaceShipTwo and SpaceX’s Falcon 9-R rocket.
Just in case you’re super excited by the thought of space travel and want to make sure you get in early, Virgin Galactic are already accepting applications for flight. If you’re accepted though, you’ll have to pay the full £200,000 fare up front.
How Far Into Space Can You Travel?
While SpaceX have published a different offering, for the most part, space travel is said to involve rocketing passengers more than 50 miles into the atmosphere to achieve a few minutes of weightlessness and witnessing Earth before returning back to ground. Virgin Galactic and Blue Origin slightly differ in the details of how they will get to space and the altitudes reached, but they are promoting similar experiences, planning to carry six passengers at once.
Who Can Go?
Aside from costs associated, there have been no limitations placed on who can travel into space. On Virgin Galactic’s website, they write that their plan is to “open space to everybody, from ages spanning the teens to the 90s”.
Will Passports Be Required?
At this stage, as commercial space passengers are only embarking on suborbital flights and returning to the same spaceport, visas and passports aren’t required. However, if point-to-point travel between countries is possible in the future, it’s likely that visas and passports will be required.
What Happens When Passengers Come Back to Earth?
There’s not been information readily shared on whether there will be government mandated security and customs procedures that will need to be followed. However, a likely scenario that we can envisage upon return post a space travel adventure, would include jumping straight onto Facebook or Instagram to share the amazing photos just captured!
When Can We Go?
The target start-date for commercial space travel has been moving for more than ten years, with initial dates still not firm. Virgin Galactic said in 2019 that they were expecting to fly within 12 months, while Blue Origin has not yet opened reservations and SpaceX have said that their trips around the moon won’t be possible before 2023.
Are you interested in space travel? Let us know your thoughts in the comments below!