Although it seems like a futuristic concept, you could take a quick vacation to outer space! A summer in space has been going around since 2001, albeit only to a very small minority. On April 30 2001, the first space tourist, 60 year-old US millionaire Dennis Tito, arrived at the International Space Station (ISS) via, funnily enough, a Russian Soyuz rocket. Would that be considered a tie for this space race?
Since then, there have been many other space tourists from all over the world, with a notable example being the second richest man in the world as of writing this, Jeff Bezos.
Blue Origin and Virgin Galactic
Jeff Bezos founded Blue Origin back in 2000 with “a vision of millions of people living and working in space for the benefit of Earth”. On 20 July 2021, Jeff Bezos, along with 3 others being Mark Bezos (his brother), Wally Funk (an aviation pioneer) and Oliver Daeman (first paying customer onboard) were launched out of our atmosphere on the New Shepard rocket, the first flight from Blue origin to carry people.
This date was chosen to commemorate the Apollo 11 moon landing that took place 52 years before. He was narrowly beaten by Richard Branson, founder of Virgin Galactic, who had blasted off just 9 days before on 11 July 2021. To Blue Origin’s credit, they reached an altitude of 100kmm, while Virgin Galactic only hit 86 km, which some experts argue is not counted as space (although NASA and the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) disagree).
The first New Sheppard crewed flight also set 2 world records, with the then 82 year-old Wally Funk becoming the oldest person to go to space, and the then 18 year-old Oliver Daeman becoming the youngest person to go to space. These 2 records have since been surpassed, with William Shatner, the famous actor from Star Trek who was aged 90 at the time, flying onboard the second Blue Origin crewed flight just months after on 13 October.
Just 2 years later on 10 August 2023, Anastatia Mayers, also 18 years-old at the time but younger, flew on the VSS Unity of Virgin Galactic, their first tourism flight. This can be considered a tie for both companies, although they aren’t the only major players in the industry.
Space Adventures
Space Adventures worked with MirCorp to make history by sending Dennis Tito to space. The aptly named company was founded in 1998 by Eric C. Anderson. Since that first trip, they have been responsible for the trips of the next 6 space tourists in the world, like Mark Shuttleworth (the second space tourist and first South African space tourist), Anousheh Ansari (the first female space tourist and first Iranian person to go to space), Charles Simonyi (the second Hungarian person in space and first person to take 2 tourist trips to space) and Guy Laliberté (the first Canadian space tourist). Their most recent adventure was with Yusaku Maezawa and Yozo Hirano - their mission being launched on 8 December 2021. This makes them the first Japanese space tourists and the 8th and 9th space tourists on missions arranged by Space Adventures.
Their trip came after a long hiatus for not just the company, but for space tourism in general, with Guy Laliberté’s trip in 2009 being the last for more than 10 years. This has been attributed to the US Space Shuttle program’s retirement, leaving Russian Soyuz craft as the only option for getting to and from the ISS. Reservations about space tourism may also come from the unfortunate death of co-pilot Michael Alsbury that resulted from the crash of Virgin Galactic’s first SpaceShipTwo.
Space Exploration Technologies Corp., SpaceX
Founded in 2002 by Elon Musk and Tom Mueller, SpaceX aims to make humanity multiplanetary through producing more affordable rockets. While the company has a long list of achievements, such as working very closely with NASA and being the first private company to send cargo and people to and from the International Space Station, it wasn’t until 16 September 2021, mere months after Bezos and Branson’s launches, that SpaceX launched their first space tourists.
Inspiration4 was the first crewed orbital mission with no professional astronauts on board, reaching an altitude of 585 km, blowing both Bezos and Branson’s heights out of the water. The mission was funded by billionaire and pilot Jared Issacman and with him was Hayley Arceneaux, Chris Sembroski and Sian Proctor. The mission aimed to raise awareness for St Jude Children’s Research Hospital, raising 240 million USD for the cause. So far, this has been the only instance of SpaceX being directly involved with a completed space tourism mission. However, upcoming missions are being planned, with billionaire Yusaku Maezawa’s dearMoon Project being postponed indefinitely and plans for Dennis Tito’s return to space as well. Both missions would make use of the SpaceX Starship and would take the crews on a journey around the moon.
Axiom Space
SpaceX also provides spacecraft for Axiom Space, a company founded in 2016 by Michael T. Suffredini and Kam Ghaffarian. Axiom Space has completed 3 space tourism missions, its first being Ax-1, launched on 8 April 2022. It was the first fully private crew to travel to the International Space Station. The crew consisted of Michael López-Alegría, Larry Connor, Eytan Stibbe and Mark Pathy.
The most recent space tourism mission is Ax-3, consisting of a returning Micheal López-Alegría, Walter Villadei, Alper Gezeravcı (first citizen of Turkey to reach space) and Marcus Wandt, launched on 18 January 2024 and coming back on 9 February 2024, the first all European commercial mission to the International Space Station.
While there are others in the market and likely more to join, with the commercial space tourism market dominating in 2021 having gained a market share of 56.7%, these companies are the most likely options for a space vacation. Much like earthly vacation packages, these space missions have various different features and prices.
Experience Onboard
Blue Origin and Virgin Galactic's space flights have so far only been suborbital, meaning that they do not travel fast enough to enter into orbit, and hence are still pulled down by Earth’s gravity. They reach lower altitudes, with Virgin Galactic's spacecrafts reaching about 88 km, while Blue Origin’s New Sheppard just hit the Karman line at about 100 km. They also cannot remain in space for long, with the current space flights of these companies lasting about 10-15 minutes. The feeling of weightlessness passengers receive when they reach their highest point is not due to the zero gravity we associate space with, but because they are free falling.
On the other hand, other companies send their passengers to the International Space Station, allowing them to stay there for more than a week and engage in various activities. A third option would be like Inspiration4’s trip which was orbital, allowing them to stay in space for 3 days. There may also be a new option, with NASA awarding SpaceX with a $2.89 billion contract to build Starship, a spacecraft that could take passengers around the moon. For those wanting a more glamorous option, in 2019 Gateway Foundation announced a cruise ship-style hotel designed to orbit the Earth’s atmosphere. Since then, there have been 2 concept designs, the original being Voyager Station that is set to open in 2027 and the smaller Pioneer Station.
Pricing
For the average person, any of the prices set would be unattainable. The cheapest would be Virgin Galactic’s priced set at 450 thousand USD. This is followed by Blue Origin’s alleged price of 1.25 million USD, although ticket auctions have potentially blown up the price. Space Adventures trips are suspected to be about 35 million USD. SpaceX’s 3 day trip was speculated to be about 50 million USD, and finally Axiom Space’s trips are 55 million USD. Although not yet constructed, the Voyager Station’s prices are expected to be about 450 thousand USD.
Safety
So far no casualties have been reported, although there have been certain complications. In the most recent Virgin Galactic flight on 6 January 2024, an alignment pin fell from the VMS Eve carrier aircraft after deploying the VSS Unity spacecraft. The company claims it has notified the Federal Aviation Administration of the incident and expects no further investigation. In September 2022, the New Shepard rocket crashed. Thankfully, there was no crew on board, but this led to a 15-month grounding. They have since launched it again on 19 December 2023.
Downsides to Space Tourism
While space tourism is an exciting possibility, many criticise it, including NASA at one point, although they have since opened up to the idea. It did not help that many of the trips were carried out during the Covid-19 pandemic when the rest of the world was suffering. Jeff Bezos in particular was criticised for the exploitation of his workers during the pandemic.
Many are also concerned about the unethical ways some of these billionaires have amassed their fortune, and also feel that the extravagant amounts of money put towards these trips could have been used to help the many people that are suffering from today’s global issues. Although these companies claim to be trying to make space travel more affordable, it is clear that unless you are lucky enough to be invited on an already funded trip, a trip to space is but a dream to most, considering many people would not even earn that much money in their lifetime.
While we can certainly hope, currently all signs are pointing to space tourism being a luxury that only the richest of the rich can afford. However, if these companies do achieve their claimed goals of making space travel more affordable, who knows? Maybe one day a nice summer vacation to the moon may be possible.
Works Cited
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