Infinity and beyond: The future of space tourism
As World Space Week begins, we look at how close commercial space tourism is to being a reality…
On the day 12 April 1961, a young Russian pilot put on an orange jumpsuit and climbed into a tiny capsule aboard a giant Soviet rocket in the dusty flats of western Kazakhstan. At 6.07 am, it was launched into the atmosphere, and by 6.13 am, he radioed back to say, “I can see Earth…I can see almost everything.” The pilot was Yuri Gagarin, the first human to fly into outer space.
Spaceflight and exploration have grown at a pace in the years since Gagarin’s ground-breaking flight. According to a report by Research and Markets, space tourism will be worth £6.3 billion by 2030. However, despite lofty predictions, touristic spaceflight has been slow to start – little surprise given the complexities involved.
Nevertheless, it seems inevitable that humans will add outer space to the list of destinations that keen (and, for now, deep-pocketed) travellers visit. We’ve taken a look at the different directions space tourism is headed.
Into space
Many companies are looking to orbital and suborbital flights for space tourism opportunities. These involve riding in a rocket or aircraft to the limit of Earth’s atmosphere, just above it or all the way to the International Space Station (ISS). Many think space tourism will follow a path similar to early aviation, with ultra-high-net-worth individuals footing the early bill for development and trips becoming more affordable over time. Several private companies are developing orbital flights, and according to data from Northern Sky Research, around 60,000 passengers will go into space over the next decade, many of them with the following three companies…
Blue Origin
The New Shepard is a reusable vehicle that takes off in a vertical launch and travels around three times the speed of sound past the Kármán Line (100km above Earth), then makes a gentle descent using parachutes. It seats six people, is fully autonomous and has no pilots. Founded by Jeff Bezos in 2000, Blue Origin’s flights launch from Launch Site One, near Van Horn in the West Texas desert, and an auction for a seat on the first flight went for £23 million.
Civil rights activist Amanda Nguyen, who drafted the Survivors’ Bill of Rights Act of 2016 that transformed the way rape kits are processed within the US, aerospace engineer and STEMBoard founder Aisha Bowe, singer Katy Perry, CBS Mornings co-host Gayle King, film producer Kerianne Flynn, and Bezos’ fiancée Lauren Sánchez became Blue Origin’s first all-female space crew on 14 April, 2025. The journey lasted 11 minutes with several minutes floating in weightlessness.
In the wake of the journey, an excerpt from William Shatner’s book about his own experience as one of the first passengers on Blue Origin’s flights has been repeatedly reshared on X, the platform formerly known as Twitter. In an excerpt from Boldly Go: Reflections on a Life of Awe and Wonder (2022) shared with Variety, he wrote, “It was among the strongest feelings of grief I have ever encountered. The contrast between the vicious coldness of space and the warm nurturing of Earth below filled me with overwhelming sadness. Every day, we are confronted with the knowledge of further destruction of Earth at our hands: the extinction of animal species, of flora and fauna . . . things that took five billion years to evolve, and suddenly we will never see them again because of the interference of mankind. It filled me with dread. My trip to space was supposed to be a celebration; instead, it felt like a funeral.”
Given one of the main criticisms of space tourism is its negative impact on the planet (a recent model puts the carbon dioxide emissions from one launch per passenger at around 100 times those from a long-haul flight), the quote feels all the more poignant.
More information: blueorigin.com
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Virgin Galactic
SpaceShipTwo (VSS Unity) takes off from a runway and is gently carried to 15,000m by a ‘mothership’ plane and then a smaller sub-orbital spaceplane is launched out of the atmosphere before gliding back to Earth and landing like an aeroplane. It seats six passengers and two pilots. Virgin’s flights launch from Spaceport America in New Mexico and costs around £405,500 per seat. The flights last 2.5 hours with a gentle ascent and three to six minutes of zero-gravity weightlessness, as well as views of Earth’s curvature.
More information: virgingalactic.com
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SpaceX
SpaceX is developing a suite of space experiences with its Dragon and Starship spaceships, which launch from several space facilities in the US. The flights range from three days in orbit to ten days aboard the ISS, and they have ambitious plans to take tourists to the moon and, eventually, Mars. Currently, multi-day trips to the ISS are going for around £45 million per seat.
More information: spacex.com
This is a rapidly growing industry with new companies appearing all the time. For example, Axiom Space is utilising a SpaceX rocket to take passengers to the International Space Station for ten-day missions, with three successful trips to date. Another alternative is SpaceX’s plan to offer point-to-point Earth travel via low orbit, allowing 100 passengers to travel around the world at high speeds – a trip from Shanghai to New York could take 40 minutes.
“I had a dream: to turn commercial space travel into a reality. Today, Virgin Galactic is flying to space on a monthly basis while achieving a bunch of firsts – the first female astronauts from the Caribbean, the youngest person to go into space and the first Olympian to go to space – while also conducting research missions onboard the spacecraft. We’re continuing to push the limits of what’s possible in space travel… I’m planning to go to space for my 80th, 90th and 100th birthdays, and I’m an optimist, so my 110th as well!”
Floating on air
A less expensive option in the works is the emergence of zero-pressure balloons. These involve a slow float up to the outer reaches of the atmosphere via a helium balloon (helium is a limited resource) and don’t require special passenger training. Though they won’t technically reach outer space, they go much higher than a plane, with multiple companies offering far more geographical diversity.
Operators include Space Perspective, launching from Florida in 2024 with a gentle 19kph ascent. Trips cost around £103,000 per seat and take six to eight hours, with dining, drinks, music and, crucially, a toilet on board. World View will launch from the Great Barrier Reef and a handful of global locations at around £41,250 a seat, while Zephalto will run balloon trips to the outer atmosphere from France by 2025, including gourmet French meals, wine tasting and pro photography courses on board for around £104,000 per person. HALO Space will offer a similar trip and price point from Spain.
In Japan, Iwaya Giken has a ‘budget-minded’ microcapsule that seats one passenger plus a pilot, which will launch from Hokkaido and rise 25km into the stratosphere over two hours. The trip is around £132,920 per passenger, with plans to bring the price down to less than a third of that.
A proper ‘spacecation’
The concept of a longer stay at a space hotel or moonbase is no longer in the realms of science fiction. Multiple companies have plans for space-station-like ‘hotels’ that will orbit Earth, housing guests and enabling science. Above: Space Development Corporation looks closest to achieving the first opening, with its small Pioneer Station possibly ready later this year and hosting 28 guests. The more ambitious Voyager Station – a resort housing up to 400 guests, with restaurants, bars and a zero-gravity basketball court – is set to begin construction in 2026. These will feature artificial gravity, allowing travellers to stand, walk around and sip cocktails with an Earth view.
