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Space Tourism: Can A Civilian Go To Space?

2021 has been a busy year for private space tourism: overall, more than 15 civilians took a trip to space during this year. In this article, you will learn more about the space tourism industry, its history, and the companies that are most likely to make you a space tourist.

What is space tourism?

Brief history of space tourism, space tourism companies, orbital and suborbital space flights, how much does it cost for a person to go to space, is space tourism worth it, can i become a space tourist, why is space tourism bad for the environment.

Space tourism is human space travel for recreational or leisure purposes . It’s divided into different types, including orbital, suborbital, and lunar space tourism.

However, there are broader definitions for space tourism. According to the Space Tourism Guide , space tourism is a commercial activity related to space that includes going to space as a tourist, watching a rocket launch, going stargazing, or traveling to a space-focused destination.

The first space tourist was Dennis Tito, an American multimillionaire, who spent nearly eight days onboard the International Space Station in April 2001. This trip cost him $20 million and made Tito the first private citizen who purchased his space ticket. Over the next eight years, six more private citizens followed Tito to the International Space Station to become space tourists.

As space tourism became a real thing, dozens of companies entered this industry hoping to capitalize on renewed public interest in space, including Blue Origin in 2000 and Virgin Galactic in 2004. In the 2000s, space tourists were limited to launches aboard Russian Soyuz aircraft and only could go to the ISS. However, everything changed when the other players started to grow up on the market. There are now a variety of destinations and companies for travels to space.

There are now six major space companies that are arranging or planning to arrange touristic flights to space:

• Virgin Galactic;
• Blue Origin;
• Axiom Space;
• Space Perspective.

While the first two are focused on suborbital flights, Axiom and Boeing are working on orbital missions. SpaceX, in its turn, is prioritizing lunar tourism in the future. For now, Elon Musk’s company has allowed its Crew Dragon spacecraft to be chartered for orbital flights, as it happened with the Inspiration4 3-day mission . Space Perspective is developing a different balloon-based system to carry customers to the stratosphere and is planning to start its commercial flights in 2024.

Orbital and suborbital flights are very different. Taking an orbital flight means staying in orbit; in other words, going around the planet continually at a very high speed to not fall back to the Earth. Such a trip takes several days, even a week or more. A suborbital flight in its turn is more like a space hop — you blast off, make a huge arc, and eventually fall back to the Earth, never making it into orbit. A flight duration, in this case, ranges from 2 to 3 hours.

Here is an example: a spaceflight takes you to an altitude of 100 km above the Earth. To enter into orbit — make an orbital flight — you would have to gain a speed of about 28,000 km per hour (17,400 mph) or more. But to reach the given altitude and fall back to the Earth — make a suborbital flight — you would have to fly at only 6,000 km per hour (3,700 mph). This flight takes less energy, less fuel; therefore, it is less expensive.

• Virgin Galactic: $250,000 for a 2-hour suborbital flight at an altitude of 80 km;
• Blue Origin: approximately $300,000 for 12 minutes suborbital flight at an altitude of 100 km;
• Axiom Space: $55 million for a 10-day orbital flight;
• Space Perspective: $125,000 for a 6-hour flight to the edge of space (32 km above the Earth).

The price depends, but remember that suborbital space flights are always cheaper.

What exactly do you expect from a journey to space? Besides the awesome impressions, here is what you can experience during such a trip:

• Weightlessness . Keep in mind that during a suborbital flight you’ll get only a couple of minutes in weightlessness, but it will be truly fascinating .
• Space sickness . The symptoms include cold sweating, malaise, loss of appetite, nausea, fatigue, and vomiting. Even experienced astronauts are not immune from it!
• G-force . 1G is the acceleration we feel due to the force of gravity; a usual g-force astronauts experience during a rocket launch is around 3gs. To understand how a g-force influences people , watch this video.

For now, the most significant barrier for space tourism is price. But air travel was also once expensive; a one-way ticket cost more than half the price of a new car . Most likely, the price for space travel will reduce overtime as well. For now, you need to be either quite wealthy or win in a competition, as did Sian Proctor, a member of Inspiration4 mission . But before spending thousands of dollars on space travel, here is one more fact you might want to consider.

Rocket launches are harmful to the environment in general. During the burning of rocket fuels, rocket engines release harmful gases and soot particles (also known as black carbon) into the upper atmosphere, resulting in ozone depletion. Think about this: in 2018 black-carbon-producing rockets emitted about the same amount of black carbon as the global aviation industry emits annually.

However, not all space companies use black carbon for fuel. Blue Origin’s New Shepard rocket has a liquid hydrogen-fuelled engine: hydrogen doesn’t emit carbon but simply turns into water vapor when burning.

The main reason why space tourism could be harmful to the environment is its potential popularity. With the rising amount of rocket launches the carbon footprint will only increase — Virgin Galactic alone aims to launch 400 of these flights annually. Meanwhile, the soot released by 1,000 space tourism flights could warm Antarctica by nearly 1°C !

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The Future of Space Tourism Is Now. Well, Not Quite.

From zero-pressure balloon trips to astronaut boot camps, reservations for getting off the planet — or pretending to — are skyrocketing. The prices, however, are still out of this world.

By Debra Kamin

Ilida Alvarez has dreamed of traveling to space since she was a child. But Ms. Alvarez, a legal-mediation firm owner, is afraid of flying, and she isn’t a billionaire — two facts that she was sure, until just a few weeks ago, would keep her fantasy as out of reach as the stars. She was wrong.

Ms. Alvarez, 46, and her husband, Rafael Landestoy, recently booked a flight on a 10-person pressurized capsule that — attached to a massive helium-filled balloon — will gently float to 100,000 feet while passengers sip champagne and recline in ergonomic chairs. The reservation required a $500 deposit; the flight itself will cost $50,000 and last six to 12 hours.

“I feel like it was tailor-made for the chickens like me who don’t want to get on a rocket,” said Ms. Alvarez, whose flight, organized by a company called World View , is scheduled to depart from the Grand Canyon in 2024.

Less than a year after Jeff Bezos and Richard Branson kicked off a commercial space race by blasting into the upper atmosphere within weeks of each other last summer, the global space tourism market is skyrocketing, with dozens of companies now offering reservations for everything from zero-pressure balloon trips to astronaut boot camps and simulated zero-gravity flights. But don’t don your spacesuit just yet. While the financial services company UBS estimates the space travel market will be worth $3 billion by 2030, the Federal Aviation Administration has yet to approve most out-of-this-world trips, and construction has not started on the first space hotel. And while access and options — not to mention launchpads — are burgeoning, space tourism remains astronomically expensive for most.

First, what counts as space travel?

Sixty miles (about 100 kilometers) above our heads lies the Kármán line, the widely accepted aeronautical boundary of the earth’s atmosphere. It’s the boundary used by the Féderátion Aéronautique Internationale, which certifies and controls global astronautical records. But many organizations in the United States, including the F.A.A. and NASA, define everything above 50 miles to be space.

Much of the attention has been focused on a trio of billionaire-led rocket companies: Mr. Bezos’ Blue Origin , whose passengers have included William Shatner; Mr. Branson’s Virgin Galactic , where tickets for a suborbital spaceflight start at $450,000; and Elon Musk’s SpaceX , which in September launched an all-civilian spaceflight, with no trained astronauts on board. Mr. Branson’s inaugural Virgin Galactic flight in 2021 reached about 53 miles, while Blue Origin flies above the 62-mile mark. Both are eclipsed by SpaceX, whose rockets charge far deeper in to the cosmos, reaching more than 120 miles above Earth.

Balloons, like those operated by World View, don’t go nearly as high. But even at their maximum altitude of 18 or 19 miles, operators say they float high enough to show travelers the curvature of the planet, and give them a chance to experience the overview effect — an intense perspective shift that many astronauts say kicks in when you view Earth from above.

Now, how to get there …

Blue Origin and Virgin Galactic, which are both licensed for passenger space travel by the F.A.A., are open for ticket sales. (Blue Origin remains mum on pricing.) Both companies currently have hundreds or even thousands of earthlings on their wait lists for a whirl to the edge of space. SpaceX charges tens of millions of dollars for its further-reaching flights and is building a new facility in Texas that is currently under F.A.A. review.

Craig Curran is a major space enthusiast — he’s held a reserved seat on a Virgin Galactic flight since 2011 — and the owner of Deprez Travel in Rochester, N.Y. The travel agency has a special space travel arm, Galactic Experiences by Deprez , through which Mr. Curran sells everything from rocket launch tickets to astronaut training.

Sales in the space tourism space, Mr. Curran acknowledges, “are reasonably difficult to make,” and mostly come from peer-to-peer networking. “You can imagine that people who spend $450,000 to go to space probably operate in circles that are not the same as yours and mine,” he said.

Some of Mr. Curran’s most popular offerings include flights where you can experience the same stomach-dropping feeling of zero gravity that astronauts feel in space, which he arranges for clients via chartered, specialized Boeing 727s that are flown in parabolic arcs to mimic being in space. Operators including Zero G also offer the service; the cost is around $8,200.

You can almost count the number of completed space tourist launches on one hand — Blue Origin has had four; SpaceX, two. Virgin Galactic, meanwhile, on Thursday announced the launch of its commercial passenger service, previously scheduled for late 2022, was delayed until early 2023. Many of those on waiting lists are biding their time before blastoff by signing up for training. Axiom Space, which contracts with SpaceX, currently offers NASA-partnered training at Houston’s Johnson Space Center. Virgin Galactic, which already offers a “customized Future Astronaut Readiness program” at its Spaceport America facility in New Mexico, is also partnering with NASA to build a training program for private astronauts.

Would-be space tourists should not expect the rigor that NASA astronauts face. Training for Virgin Galactic’s three-hour trips is included in the cost of a ticket and lasts a handful of days; it includes pilot briefings and being “fitted for your bespoke Under Armour spacesuit and boots,” according to its website.

Not ready for a rocket? Balloon rides offer a less hair-raising celestial experience.

“We go to space at 12 miles an hour, which means that it’s very smooth and very gentle. You’re not rocketing away from earth,” said Jane Poynter, a co-founder and co-chief executive of Space Perspective , which is readying its own touristic balloon spaceship, Spaceship Neptune. If all goes according to plan, voyages are scheduled to begin departing from Florida in 2024, at a cost of $125,000 per person. That’s a fraction of the price tag for Blue Origin and Virgin Galactic, but still more than double the average annual salary of an American worker.

Neither Space Perspective nor World View has the required approval yet from the F.A.A. to operate flights.

Unique implications

Whether a capsule or a rocket is your transport, the travel insurance company battleface launched a civilian space insurance plan in late 2021, a direct response, said chief executive Sasha Gainullin, to an increase in space tourism interest and infrastructure. Benefits include accidental death and permanent disablement in space and are valid for spaceflights on operators like SpaceX, Blue Origin and Virgin Galactic, as well as on stratospheric balloon rides. They’ve had many inquiries, Mr. Gainullin said, but no purchases just yet.

“Right now it’s such high-net-worth individuals who are traveling to space, so they probably don’t need insurance,” he said. “But for quote-unquote regular travelers, I think we’ll see some takeups soon.”

And as the industry grows, so perhaps will space travel’s impact on the environment. Not only do rocket launches have immense carbon footprints, even some stratospheric balloon flights have potentially significant implications: World View’s balloons are powered by thousands of cubic meters of helium, which is a limited resource . But Ted Parson, a professor of environmental law at the University of California, Los Angeles, said that space travel’s environmental impact is still dwarfed by civil aviation. And because space travel is ultra-niche, he believes it’s likely to stay that way.

“Despite extensive projections, space tourism is likely to remain a tiny fraction of commercial space exploration,” he said. “It reminds me of tourism on Mt. Everest. It’s the indulgence of very rich people seeking a transcendent, once-in-a-lifetime experience, and the local environmental burden is intense.”

Stay a while?

In the future, space enthusiasts insist, travelers won’t be traveling to space just for the ride. They’ll want to stay a while. Orbital Assembly Corporation, a manufacturing company whose goal is to colonize space, is currently building the world’s first space hotels — two ring-shaped properties that will orbit Earth, called Pioneer Station and Voyager Station. The company, quite optimistically, projects an opening date of 2025 for Pioneer Station, with a capacity of 28 guests. The design for the larger Voyager Station , which they say will open in 2027, promises villas and suites, as well as a gym, restaurant and bar. Both provide the ultimate luxury: simulated gravity. Axiom Space , a space infrastructure company, is currently building the world’s first private space station; plans include Philippe Starck-designed accommodations for travelers to spend the night.

Joshua Bush, chief executive of travel agency Avenue Two Travel , has sold a handful of seats on upcoming Virgin Galactic flights to customers. The market for space travel (and the sky-high prices that come with it), he believes, will evolve much like civilian air travel did.

“In the beginning of the 20th century, only very affluent people could afford to fly,” he said. “Just as we have Spirit and Southwest Airlines today, there will be some sort of equivalent of that in space travel, too. Hopefully within my lifetime.”

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You Can Now Book a Virgin Galactic Seat to Space — but It'll Cost You

Now you can fly to space, too — for just $450,000.

Space travel isn't just coming. Space travel is here.

On Tuesday, Virgin Galactic announced that ticket sales will open to the general public on Feb. 16 for space flights taking place later this year. The open ticket sales, the company shared in a statement, will provide everyone with the chance to secure one of the first spaceflight reservations.

"At Virgin Galactic, we believe that space is transformational," Michael Colglazier, the CEO of Virgin Galactic, said. "We plan to have our first 1,000 customers on board at the start of commercial service later this year, providing an incredibly strong foundation as we begin regular operations and scale our fleet."

Snagging a Virgin Galactic spaceflight reservation will also give the recipient access to the Future Astronaut membership community, which Virgin Galactic noted, is designed to bring "inspiration, excitement, and adventure" from the flight itself and well beyond. Members will gain access to events, trips, and space-readiness activities both pre-and post-flight.

Spaceflight reservations will be available for $450,000. Those interested in traveling to space are asked to put down an initial deposit of $150,000 and make the final payment before their flight. See Virgin Galactic's website for more information and to start your application process right now.

The flight itself departs from Virgin's Spaceport America in New Mexico. Those taking part will arrive several days before the flight for training and a few bespoke itinerary activities, all while staying in private, world-class accommodations.

During spaceflight, guests can expect a 90-minute round-trip journey. Once in the air, the spaceship will gently flip so guests can experience several minutes of out-of-seat weightlessness and take in the breathtaking view of the Earth below from the ship's 17 oversized windows.

To mark the launch of public sales, Virgin Galactic also unveiled a new consumer-facing brand, which it said is designed to capture the "love, wonder, and awe of the experience of viewing Earth from space, and to inspire generations of future astronauts around the world."

You Won’t Hear Much About the Next Chapter of Space Travel

Space tourism is getting less transparent, and more like traveling by private jet.

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Of all the high-flying tourism ventures spawned by space-obsessed billionaires, Virgin Galactic, founded by Richard Branson, offers perhaps the most unconventional approach. It doesn’t use big rockets or gumdrop-shaped capsules. Instead, an airplane takes off with a spacecraft strapped to its wing. The spacecraft, shaped like a plane itself, holds the paying customers and more pilots. When the airplane reaches a certain altitude, it releases the spacecraft. The spacecraft’s pilots then ignite its engine, and the vehicle soars straight up, to the fuzzy boundary that separates us from the rest of the universe, before gliding back down and landing on a runway.

The spaceplane experience is a stark contrast to Blue Origin’s suborbital jaunts and SpaceX’s orbital missions, but Virgin Galactic’s passengers still have a few surreal minutes of weightlessness, and they get to see the planet gleaming against the darkness of space. Those passengers have included the first former Olympian to reach space, as well as the first mother-daughter duo and, most recently, the first Pakistani .

In the midst of all that, Virgin Galactic clocked a first that raised some eyebrows: The company withheld the passenger list from the public before a takeoff last month, divulging the travelers’ names only after they had landed. The company never publicly explained its preflight secrecy. (Virgin Galactic did not respond to a request for comment.) Yesterday, Virgin Galactic announced its next flight, scheduled for November; the company kept one of the three listed passengers anonymous, saying only that the person is “of Franco-Italian nationality.”

Virgin is of course within its rights to withhold passenger names before takeoff. After all, airlines and railroads keep private the names of their customers. But Virgin Galactic’s choice to do so marks a subtle shift—the latest in U.S. spaceflight’s arc from a publicly funded national mission to private tourism. NASA, as a taxpayer-funded organization, has always had to provide the public with launch lists and livestreams. But the age of space tourism raises a host of questions: How much openness do space-tourism companies owe the public? How much privacy do they owe their customers? Before the Virgin flight returned home last month, it operated almost like a privately chartered plane, its movements known to relevant aviation agencies but its passengers’ names undisclosed to the public. Commercial spaceflight and air travel are still far from alike, but in this particular aspect, the space-tourism industry may be drifting toward its private-jet era.

Read: The new ‘right stuff’ is money and luck

In practice, the space-tourism industry is barely more than two years old, and it’s “still finding its norms,” says Carissa Christensen, a space consultant and the CEO of BryceTech, an analytics and engineering firm. The first passenger rosters were marquee news in 2021, when Branson and Jeff Bezos were racing to be the first to ride their own spacecraft , and Elon Musk’s SpaceX was working to send a quartet of private astronauts with zero spaceflight experience into orbit.

All three of their companies publicized, and even hyped, the passenger lists, in some cases months in advance. Wally Funk, an octogenarian aviator who had outperformed male candidates in astronaut tests during the 1960s but was kept out of the astronaut corps because she was a woman, flew alongside Bezos . Jared Isaacman, a billionaire businessman, paid for three other people to fly into orbit with him on SpaceX; all of them gave countless interviews before launch. And who can forget the hype ahead of William Shatner’s flight, and the Star Trek star’s unfiltered, emotional remarks after landing?

The rosters became less noteworthy as time went on: The customers were no longer memorable guests who got free rides, but simply very wealthy people who could afford the trips on their own. Last month’s temporarily secret Virgin Galactic fliers included a real-estate investor from Las Vegas, a South African entrepreneur, and a British engineer who founded a company that builds race cars. Michelle Hanlon, a space lawyer and the executive director of the University of Mississippi’s Center for Air and Space Law, told me that she was mildly surprised by Virgin Galactic’s decision to withhold the passengers’ identities before takeoff, but that the decision did not strike her as inappropriate.

“From a paparazzi standpoint, if it’s Ashton Kutcher, the world’s gonna care a little bit more than if it’s Michelle Hanlon,” Hanlon said. (Kutcher did, in fact, purchase a Virgin Galactic ticket in 2012, but he later sold it back to the company after his wife and fellow actor, Mila Kunis, talked him out of going.) And from a legal standpoint, nothing inappropriate occurred, Hanlon said; there are no existing requirements for a private company to disclose passenger names. Space travelers must sign waivers from the Federal Aviation Administration outlining the risks associated with the activity, she said, but the companies they’re flying with are not required to provide the agency with a passenger list.

Read: Jeff Bezos knows who paid for him to go to space

Passenger names aren’t the only details of commercial spaceflight that are becoming more opaque. When SpaceX launched its first set of private astronauts, the company shared significantly less live footage of their experience in orbit than they did when NASA astronauts test-drove the capsule a year earlier. During its last two flights, Virgin Galactic decided not to provide a livestream, giving updates on social media instead.

Because there are no regulations, it’s difficult to say when the companies’ right to privacy becomes a concerning level of secrecy. NASA overshares when it comes to its astronauts and their mission, because the public—which funds the agency—expects it. Americans might also expect a good look at SpaceX customers who visit the International Space Station, which relies on billions of dollars of taxpayer money, and where private visitors share meals with government astronauts. But what about other kinds of SpaceX missions, which go into orbit without disembarking at any government-owned facility? The company developed its crewed launch services with significant investment from NASA, so virtually every SpaceX trip indirectly involves government money. That doesn’t necessarily mean SpaceX is obligated to share as the space agency does, even if people on the ground feel that it should.

Another major difference between NASA missions and private ones, of course, is that astronauts are at work, whereas many space tourists are presumably just having fun. Caryn Schenewerk, a consultant who specializes in commercial spaceflight at her firm CS Consulting, told me that she thinks commercial spaceflight will adopt the practices of other forms of adventure tourism. Take skydiving, for example: Schenewerk said that she has signed paperwork granting the skydiving company permission to use footage of her experience for its own purposes. “There’s some expectation of privacy on the individual’s behalf that then has to be actively waived for the company’s benefit,” she said.

The once-anonymous Virgin Galactic passengers on the September flight have since publicly shared their stories , basking in the awe of their experience. Christensen told me that most future tourists will likely do the same. “A big part of the fun is other people knowing that you’ve done it,” she said. Flying to space isn’t exactly something to be modest about: Fewer than 700 people have done it since human beings first achieved the feat, in the early 1960s, and we know all of their names. If Virgin’s new mystery passenger doesn’t reveal their name, they really will make history.

Read: Seeing Earth from space will change you

Many spacefarers—the Soviet cosmonauts who inhabited the first space station, the American astronauts who shuttled their way into orbit, the Chinese astronauts living in space right now, all of the people who have flown commercial—have spoken about the transformational wonder of seeing Earth from space, a phenomenon known as the overview effect . They reported that they better understood the reality of our beautiful, fragile planet, and that they felt a duty to share their impressions with people on the ground. Gene Cernan, one of the dozen men who walked on the lunar surface, once said, “If only everyone could relate to the beauty and the purposefulness of it … It wouldn’t bring a utopia to this planet for people to understand it all, but it might make a difference.” In this sense, for a space traveler to remain unknown forever would be a sort of anti–overview effect: Just as they may have the right to request some privacy, they have no obligation to bring the transcendent power of their journey back to Earth.

Three years ago, two NASA astronauts made a historic flight on a new SpaceX astronaut capsule. Ahead of the mission, I asked NASA what Doug Hurley and Bob Behnken were going to have for breakfast on the morning of the launch. It was a question with a long tradition in spacefaring history: During the Apollo days, the public was privy to the final Earth-bound meals of history-making astronauts. NASA officials balked, saying they couldn’t divulge that information for privacy reasons. But on the day of the launch, Hurley, as if to sate the space press corps, posted a picture of his steak and eggs on Twitter (as it was still known then).

Hurley and Behnken’s preflight hours seemed like fair game; after all, these men were government employees, doing their job on their assigned mission. But future passengers may decide that we have no business knowing their breakfast order—or even their name.

The Private Companies Pioneering the (New) Space Race

It’s a brave new world for space travel..

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Three companies—Blue Origin, Virgin Galactic, and SpaceX—are blazing their own separate paths into space tourism.

Courtesy of Blue Origin

Space travel is all extremes. The prices are high—the cheapest trips cost as much as the average home in the United States—and the minutes spent floating weightlessly, gaping at Earth’s thin blue line, can be few. But more and more people are venturing into space, and the business is booming.

Three space barons— Jeff Bezos , Richard Branson , and Elon Musk —are at the fore of the space travel industry. So far, their passengers represent a narrow slice of humanity: celebrities like Star Trek ’s William Shatner or uber-rich businesspeople like Jared Isaacman , who made his fortune on a payment-processing firm he started as a teenager. The days of sipping electric-blue cocktails on sleek space stations aren’t here for the masses just yet, but for those with the dream (and cash) for a jaunt to the nearest reaches of space, look to these companies.

Bezos founded Blue Origin in 2000 with the intention of making space travel cheaper, more accessible, and frequent.

Blue Origin

Prep: Two days of training include touring the New Shepard rocket, experiencing launch simulations, and learning to conduct oneself in zero gravity (no re-enacting scenes from The Matrix ).

Price: Bezos has kept the cost for rides under wraps. In an auction for its first crewed flight in July 2021, the winning bid was $28 million for a single rider.

Founded in 2000 by Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos, Blue Origin launches travelers on 11-minute excursions. Previous passengers include William Shatner, who was profoundly moved by the experience and marveled at the tenuous boundary between Earth and space. “This air which is keeping us alive is thinner than your skin,” he told Bezos. “It would be so important for everybody to have that experience.”

The reusable New Shepard rocket takes travelers 62 miles above Earth. That’s just above the Kármán line—a theoretical boundary considered the start of space by the leading international aeronautical organization, the Féderátion Aéronautique Internationale , since the atmosphere there is too thin to support airplanes.

At the peak of the flight, passengers enjoy a few minutes of floating weightlessly while peering out their own windows (nearly 43 by 29 inches, the biggest on the market) before the capsule glides back down to the desert.

Virgin Galactic is considered to be one of the front runners in the space race after it flew one of its space planes in the outer atmosphere in 2018.

Photo by Mark Greenberg/Virgin Galactic

Virgin Galactic

Prep: A year of preparation culminates in several days of bonding and collaborating as a passenger team “to create a group that is fully equipped to enjoy themselves during spaceflight.” Passengers are also fitted for bespoke Under Armour space suits and boots.

Price: $450,000

British entrepreneur Richard Branson’s Virgin Galactic offers an experience on its SpaceShipTwo suborbital spaceplane, which can function in Earth’s atmosphere and outer space. As with any flight, the journey starts on a runway. The spaceplane piggybacks on another plane to 50,000 feet before the rocket ignites and the craft ascends.

The 90-minute flight peaks at 53 miles: well below the Kármán line, but past the 50-mile-mark that NASA and the Federal Aviation Administration consider the start of space. (Initially, the SpaceShipTwo was intended to fly above the 62-mile-mark, but trouble with the motor design resulted in a model that isn’t powerful enough to go that high.) Passengers enjoy four weightless minutes before re-entering the lower atmosphere and gliding back down the runway.

Virgin Galactic highlights the “ overview effect ” as a perk of its cosmic services: the cognitive transformation often sparked by viewing Earth against the void of space. Many astronauts report intense emotion as the unique perspective reveals the fragility and connectedness of life on Earth. In 2019, Beth Moses , Virgin Galactic’s Chief Astronaut Officer, became the first woman to fly to space on a commercial vehicle. In July 2021, she made a second trip aboard the same vessel.

In 2021, SpaceX flew the space tourism industry’s first all-civilian crew into space.

Courtesy of SpaceX

Prep: To prepare for a three-day trip in orbit, one crew underwent six months of centrifuge spins and fighter jet flights, launch and re-entry rehearsals, and even climbed snowy Mount Rainier for team bonding.

Price: A reported $55 million

Led by tech magnate Elon Musk, SpaceX boasts the only tours into orbit. And they are much more exclusive. As of July 2022, only eight civilians—lucky individuals, wealthy businesspeople, and a retired astronaut among them—have orbited Earth with SpaceX, circling the planet every 90 minutes. For these tours, the company uses the same rocket, Falcon 9 , and gumdrop-shaped spacecraft, the Dragon , to shuttle NASA astronauts to the International Space Station (ISS). Astronauts have said SpaceX’s ride brings longer, rougher g-forces, with the rocket thrusting about 4.5 times Earth’s gravity onto passengers.

The company has sent civilians on a three-day spin around Earth, while a handful of business executives had a two-week stay on the International Space Station (the latter trip was chartered by the company Axiom Space). In 2023, SpaceX will send Japanese billionaire Yusaku Maezawa on a trip around the moon.

On their orbiting stint in the 13-foot-wide Dragon , 357 miles above Earth, a four-person crew shared a toilet, took no showers, and slept buckled into the same seats they rode during launch. They ate cold meals of pizza, sandwiches, and bolognese. On the ISS trip, three civilians and their captain—a former astronaut—ate NASA’s freeze-dried meals. During their stay, which was extended due to bad weather for landing, the crew performed a variety of science experiments, like a regenerative medicine study for the Mayo Clinic on cardiac cells. Both journeys ended with a splash into the Atlantic Ocean.

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Today, NASA’s Commercial Crew Program is expanding on the agency’s relationship with private companies. Through it, NASA is relying on SpaceX and Boeing to build spacecraft capable of carrying humans into orbit. Once those vehicles are built, both companies retain ownership and control of the craft, and NASA can send astronauts into space for a fraction of the cost of a seat on Russia’s Soyuz spacecraft.

SpaceX, which established a new paradigm by developing reusable rockets , has been running regular cargo resupply missions to the International Space Station since 2012. And in May 2020, the company’s Crew Dragon spacecraft carried NASA astronauts Doug Hurley and Bob Behnken to the ISS , becoming the first crewed mission to launch from the United States in nearly a decade. The mission, called Demo-2, is scheduled to return to Earth in August. Boeing is currently developing its Starliner spacecraft and hopes to begin carrying astronauts to the ISS in 2021.

Other companies, such as Blue Origin and Virgin Galactic , are specializing in sub-orbital space tourism. Test launch video from inside the cabin of Blue Origin’s New Shepard shows off breathtaking views of our planet and a relatively calm journey for its first passenger, a test dummy cleverly dubbed “Mannequin Skywalker.” Virgin Galactic is running test flights on its sub-orbital spaceplane , which will offer paying customers roughly six minutes of weightlessness during its journey through Earth’s atmosphere.

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Such skills are crucial for the future expansion of human presence into deeper space, which demands more independence from Earth-based resources. And although humans have visited the moon before, the cratered sphere still harbors its own scientific mysteries to be explored—including the presence and extent of water ice near the moon's south pole, which is one of the top target destinations for space exploration .

NASA is also enlisting the private sector to help it reach the moon. It has awarded three contracts to private companies working on developing human-rated lunar landers—including both Blue Origin and SpaceX. But the backbone of the Artemis program relies on a brand new, state-of-the-art spacecraft called Orion .

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Currently being built and tested, Orion—like Crew Dragon and Starliner—is a space capsule similar to the spacecraft of the Mercury, Gemini, and Apollo programs, as well as Russia’s Soyuz spacecraft. But the Orion capsule is larger and can accommodate a four-person crew. And even though it has a somewhat retro design, the capsule concept is considered to be safer and more reliable than NASA’s space shuttle—a revolutionary vehicle for its time, but one that couldn’t fly beyond Earth’s orbit and suffered catastrophic failures.

Capsules, on the other hand, offer launch-abort capabilities that can protect astronauts in case of a rocket malfunction. And, their weight and design mean they can also travel beyond Earth’s immediate neighborhood, potentially ferrying humans to the moon, Mars, and beyond.

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By moving into orbit with its Commercial Crew Program and partnering with private companies to reach the lunar surface, NASA hopes to change the economics of spaceflight by increasing competition and driving down costs. If space travel truly does become cheaper and more accessible, it’s possible that private citizens will routinely visit space and gaze upon our blue, watery home world—either from space capsules, space stations, or even space hotels like the inflatable habitats Bigelow Aerospace intends to build .

The United States isn’t the only country with its eyes on the sky. Russia regularly launches humans to the International Space Station aboard its Soyuz spacecraft. China is planning a large, multi-module space station capable of housing three taikonauts, and has already launched two orbiting test vehicles—Tiangong-1 and Tiangong-2, both of which safely burned up in the Earth’s atmosphere after several years in space.

Now, more than a dozen countries have the ability to launch rockets into Earth orbit. A half-dozen space agencies have designed spacecraft that shed the shackles of Earth’s gravity and traveled to the moon or Mars. And if all goes well, the United Arab Emirates will join that list in the summer of 2020 when its Hope spacecraft heads to the red planet . While there are no plans yet to send humans to Mars, these missions—and the discoveries that will come out of them—may help pave the way.

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Home Six Space Travel Companies That Will Change Our World

Six Space Travel Companies That Will Change Our World

• Space Impulse
• March 31, 2023

Table of Contents

by Julia Seibert

Houston, we have… billionaires? When the so-called space race between Jeff Bezos and Richard Branson and their respective companies kicked off in 2021, the idea of commercial companies sending people into space for profit seemed ludicrous. The richest of the rich taking joyrides in polluting rockets, leaving the rest of the world in the dust… the headlines basically wrote themselves. 

While space tourism sounds like a frivolous affair, it is predicted to become a US $12.7 billion industry by 2031. The business model is simple: a multitude of flight options and falling launch prices, brought about by a thriving commercial space sector, entice rich customers harboring longtime astronaut dreams into buying a ticket. Besides the providers making a buck, this trend might have wider-reaching implications. An increase in human spaceflight – even if it is touristic – could bring about new developments in the field and change the landscape of the industry.

Space Travel

When human spaceflight took its baby steps in the 1960s, astronauts were an elite breed. Handpicked from various military programs and put through grueling training, the lucky few had to endure being crammed into a tin can and sent to our celestial neighbor with barely-tested technology. Today’s professional astronauts are hardly any different. Though their spacecraft have evolved somewhat, the sheer amount of skills, certifications, experience, and even physical aspects required for the job is baffling and simply impossible to attain for the average person. 

Changing this apparent inaccessibility of space was on NASA’s to-do list as the agency began launching the Space Shuttle in the early 1980s. After the moon landing, nobody seemed to care about space anymore; NASA’s budget took a hit and the country turned its attention elsewhere.

In the late 1970s, the US’s image was marred by the controversial Vietnam War, and its government looked to NASA to fix it. The idea was to fly citizens on the Shuttle to inspire the public and return America to its former, moon-landing-level glory. The PR strategy backfired tragically in 1986, when the crew of the Challenger – including citizen school teacher Christa McAuliffe – were killed in an explosion during ascent. The publicity of the event had created an intense pressure to launch, causing officials to overlook an issue with the vehicle.

The disaster led to a two-year pause in the program, but did not scare non-astronauts away from spaceflight. The Shuttle flew several more amateurs, including then-congressman Bill Nelson, who happened to sit on the committee overseeing NASA’s budget. However, it was the Soviet Union who laid the groundwork for modern-day space tourism.

In 1990, crippled by the failing economy, the Soviet space agency gladly accepted payment, an estimated US $35 million, to be exact, from Tokyo Broadcasting Station (TBS). A reporter from the station, Toyohiro Akiyama, then launched to the Mir station for a seven-day stay, aboard a Soyuz rocket plastered with sponsors’ logos. 

In 2001, space tourism as we know it took flight with Dennis Tito. The American businessman paid space tourism company Space Adventures US $20 million to broker a deal with Roscosmos, the Russian space agency, to allow him to ride a Soyuz to the fledgling International Space Station (ISS) alongside two career cosmonauts. Despite some protests from NASA, he succeeded, marking the start of a new age of commercial spaceflight. 

What Are Space Travel Companies

Space Adventures, who arranged another eight tourism flights with Roscosmos, is just one example of a space travel company. These firms can take many forms, but are defined by their mission to take humans into space. Some, like Blue Origin and Virgin Galactic, specialize in launching tourists into suborbital space to experience zero gravity for just a few minutes. Others liaise between the customer, agencies like Roscosmos or NASA, and contractors like SpaceX to organize touristic trips to the ISS. Others still look to provide a pleasant accommodation in orbit, and are planning stations that would put Earthly five-star hotels to shame.

Top 6 Space Travel Companies

Here are six companies for those planning a trip away from Earth to look out for – and by providing increased access to space, some of them might change our world, too.

Axiom Space

Axiom has its fingers in many space-related pies, including building a space station and designing NASA’s lunar spacesuits. One of its most popular services, however, is arranging flights to the ISS for private clients at US $55 million a pop. Despite costing US $150 billion to build, the station is not known for its luxurious amenities; its interior is cramped, messy, loud, and can smell like a toilet. Any other hotel would get crucified on Tripadvisor, but on the ISS, the views make up for it. 

Axiom’s service is popular with philanthropists as well as countries without a large-scale space program such as Saudi Arabia, since the process is similar to that of governmental missions. After a training period, three amateurs and one experienced astronaut launch aboard a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket and spend a week or so aboard the ISS conducting various kinds of research and outreach.

So far, the company has only one mission under its belt, wherein one career astronaut and three businessmen flew to the station in April last year. A second mission is scheduled for this spring, and two more are in the pipeline after that. Tickets are already selling like hotcakes, and candidates might even have to take part in a reality show to garner one.  

Visit company’s profile page .

Blue Origin

Blue Origin is among the more prolific companies on this list, having completed six crewed tourism flights using its suborbital New Shepard rocket. The trips are quick and painless: after two days of training, up to six people sit in a capsule atop the booster and gaze out of the windows as the rocket ascends to over 100 km in altitude. The booster then separates from the capsule and lands itself while the capsule lingers for a few minutes, during which the passengers experience weightlessness. The capsule then parachutes down, the whole experience lasting only around 11 minutes. 

Prices appear to be eyewatering, though Blue keeps mum about exact numbers. The 2018 plan was to sell seats at US $200,000 to US $300,000 apiece, but one ticket was reportedly auctioned off at US $28 million. As for when the next flight will be, details are unclear. The rocket has been grounded since a booster suffered an anomaly during an uncrewed flight in September last year, but the company hopes to fly again by the end of this year.

Along with its suborbital tourism hops, Blue is developing a reusable heavy-life rocket – New Glenn – as well as Orbital Reef, an orbital business-park-meets-tourism-destination partly funded by NASA . The station, which is expected to become operational in 2027, is a joint venture with Sierra Space, whose Dream Chaser spaceplane could become important to future touristic ventures. Sierra has also implemented an astronaut training program, which would train not only those aiming to work in space, but also ‘experiential astronauts’ who just want to see the sights. 

Virgin Galactic 

Virgin Galactic offers a simple, no-frills journey to the edge of space. Its vehicle consists of two parts: a carrier plane and a spaceplane. VMS Eve, a twin-fuselage jet, carries VSS Unity, a suborbital spaceplane, to an altitude of around 80 km. This is the United States’ definition of space, as opposed to the internationally-recognized boundary of 100 km, the Kármán line. One flight takes 90 minutes, including about four minutes of weightlessness, and costs US $450,000 (upped in 2021 from the previous price of US $250,000). 

Virgin Galactic has had somewhat of a rough ride; founder Branson had hoped to have launched 50,000 passengers by 2019, but instead found himself a grand total of four – including himself – at the time of writing (excluding pilots and copilots). A disastrous 2014 test run killed a pilot, and after Branson’s own 2021 flight, the vehicles were described as ‘rickety’. They were subsequently grounded, and the company was hit by a series of hefty lawsuits. Though since cleared to fly, the company is still working on getting the spaceplane up to scratch, with no exact launch dates forecast yet.

Being an adrenaline junkie is not a prerequisite for spaceflight – just ask Worldview. The company aims to employ high-altitude balloons to offer a gentle, hours-long trip to the edge of space. Founded in 2012, Worldview specializes in remote-sensing balloons, but is venturing into tourism with its Explorer capsule. The luxurious pressurized craft comes complete with enormous windows, ‘plush, fully reclining seating for eight’, in-flight dining, a telescope, a concierge, and, of course, high-speed Wi-Fi. 

Over the course of two hours, a balloon lifts the capsule up to about 30 km. The craft hangs here for a few hours, allowing passengers to soak in the views. Descent takes another hour, after which a parasail deploys from the capsule, resulting in a smooth touchdown. 

A ticket will cost US $50,000, making Worldview’s service among the cheapest in the business. The comparatively low cost and gentle flight mean more people can partake in the venture, in line with the company’s aim “to give as many humans as possible the chance to see our planet from unprecedented new heights,” as CEO Ryan Hartman said in a statement. Worldview is accepting deposits for flights taking off from a variety of locations, including the Serengeti and the great pyramids of Giza, with the first trips to take place in 2024. 

Space Perspective, a company established by two Worldview cofounders in 2019, offers a similar service, with one major difference: a price tag of US $125,000. Its flights are also scheduled to start in 2024.

Visit company’s profile page.

Orbital Assembly 

Orbital Assembly’s Voyager Station, a planned luxury hotel in orbit, is likely the ritziest project listed here. It will accommodate up to 400 guests, and rotations of the station should produce ‘varying levels of artificial gravity’, a process never before implemented in space. A three-and-a-half-day stay aboard the station would cost a cool US $5 million, according to the company’s former chief executive, John Blincow. 

Guests will get much bang for their buck: spacewalks, food prepared by out-of-this-world chefs, and live music are all part of the experience. “We want to have Sting come up and play, and Beyoncé… there’ll be two shows every night. That’s part of the entertainment package,’ Blincow says. 

The company aims for the hotel to open its doors – or airlocks – by the end of the decade. To bridge the gap, Orbital Assembly is planning another smaller orbital hotel and research outpost: Pioneer Station. This will not be as all-out luxurious as Voyager and could only host 28 people, but might be operational as soon as 2025.

SpaceX is not a tourism company, but deserves a place on this list as it has launched more people into space than any venture mentioned above. The trusty Crew Dragon spacecraft and Falcon 9 rocket frequently shuttle people to and from the ISS, and the company’s system of vertical integration and partial reusability have drastically driven price down. In addition, being a private company as opposed to a government agency, reduces the bureaucratic headache for its customers, and increases access to space.

Case in point for this are 2021’s Inspiration4 and the upcoming Polaris missions, which are funded by American billionaire Jared Isaacman. He paid less than US $200 million for himself and three others to orbit the Earth for three days onboard the Crew Dragon; nobody onboard had been to space before. Launching customers using the Falcon/Dragon combo is also Axiom’s method of choice. SpaceX’s newest rocket, the still-prototypical Starship, has already been booked by Isaacman and Japanese billionaire Yusaku Maezawa for future trips, again with non-professional crews. 

While billionaire-funded trips to space might not scream accessibility, a private, bookable spacecraft like Dragon opens space up to an entirely new audience. Budget-bound government entities are no longer the sole providers of launches, and passengers need not be hardcore astronauts. Without private launch firms, ordinary people like the Inspiration4 crew, which included an ex-cancer patient, might never get to experience space.

Cost of Space Travel

As seen with the examples above, space travel is pretty pricey, though it used to cost much more. These days, a Falcon 9 launch costs about US $67 million. While hefty, it’s a bargain compared to the US $450 million for a Space Shuttle mission. The hardware, fuel, logistics, and several other factors can drive costs through the roof, but breakthroughs in technology, such as reusability, have led to much more competitive pricing. 

Specifically, high costs are often caused by the hardships of sending someone into orbit, not to mention returning them safely. An incredible amount of energy is needed for a craft to reach orbital velocity, which means bigger rockets, more fuel, and more money. On the flipside, objects hailing from orbit reenter Earth’s atmosphere at incredible speeds. Reentry heat increases by the cube of velocity, resulting in scorching temperatures of around 1,500 °C that the spacecraft somehow needs to survive. Suborbital trips are not uncomplicated, but are a picnic in comparison, so these tend to come cheaper. 

Will Space Tourism Become Afordable Any Time Soon?

It is unlikely that a hop to space will become as affordable as a weekend at the beach in the near future, but it has come a long way. A century ago, airplanes were still somewhat of a novelty, and just over twenty years have passed since the first tourist flew to space. While a new rise in spaceflight has led to a swathe of tourism ventures crawling out of the woodwork, most of these are still in their infancy. Once the growing pains have passed, their customers will likely remain rich – but perhaps not as rich as once imagined. 

Take airplanes as a guideline. A coast-to-coast roundtrip cost US $260 in 1917, translating to US $6,652 in 2023. Today, a quick search of a budget airline’s flights will show prices as low as US $83 for the same trip: a 98.8% decrease. Apply this drastic development to spaceflight, and a US $450,000 spin on Virgin Galactic’s spaceplane may cost as little as US $5,615 in the distant future. Even today, SpaceX’s US $67 million per launch already signifies a roughly 85% drop compared to the Shuttle’s US $450 million, so the trend is already well underway.

Final Verdict

Space tourism is easily dismissed as a ditzy venture for the rich. But while this is not untrue, it also creates something incredibly important to manned spaceflight: demand. Satellites and scientific probes are a goldmine to governments and private companies alike and are now relatively easy to launch, but sending people is dangerous and often not worth the risk. 

Tourism changes this. Demand for access to space, cheaper launches, and even orbital hotels push technology forward, which can help bring about scientific breakthroughs. Stations like Orbital Reef are a key example of this, coupling government contracts with demand for tourism, research, and even manufacturing to finance itself. Touristic demand could even help fuel space colonization. SpaceX CEO, Elon Musk has suggested offering US $100,000-tickets – return included – to people wanting to experience life on Mars. 

Above all, though, tourism will allow more people to experience space. Even if this remains its only achievement, that alone might make it worthwhile.

Featured image: Space Shuttle Atlantis. Credit: NASA

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Amount venture capitalists invested into space companies worldwide from 2013 to 2022 (in billion U.S. dollars)

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Public opinion on which space companies are leading the private sector's push into space in the United States as of December 2021, by generation

Share of U.S. adults that believe space travel should be accessible to everyone 2021

Share of adults that believe space travel should be accessible to everyone and not just those that can afford the costs in the United States as of September 2021

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Share of the public that believe private companies focused on space exploration will make a profit in the next 10 years in the United States as of December 2021

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Share of adults that want to travel to space if money was not an issue in the United States as of September 2021, by gender

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Share of the U.S. public who would go to the moon in 2021, by gender

Share of the public that would go to the moon as a tourist if money was not a factor in the United States as of December 2021, by gender

Share of U.S. adults who would travel to the moon 2021, by age

Share of adults that would travel to the moon in the United States as of May 2021, by age

Share of U.S. adults who would spend over 100 thousand USD to travel to space 2021

Share of adults that would spend more than 100 thousand U.S. dollars to travel to space in the United States as of September 2021

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Space Tourism: How Much Does it Cost & Who's Offering It?

Last Updated: December 17, 2022

Many of us dream of going to space and over 600 people have traveled to space as astronauts in government-funded agencies such as NASA, the European Space Agency, and Roscosmos. But how much does spaceflight cost in today and how is that expected to change in the coming years? 

With new advancements in spaceflight technology, the costs of space travel are decreasing, making the dream of spaceflight a little closer for us all.

Evolution of Spaceflight Costs and Technologies

During the space race, the cost of sending something into space averaged between $6,000 to over $25,000 per kg of weight not adjusted for inflation and NASA spent $28 billion to land astronauts on the moon, about $288 billion in today’s dollars.

In recent decades, it has averaged around $10,000 per kg though certain missions have been higher due to other factors including the destination, the size of the rocket, the amount of fuel needed, and the cost of fuel. 

After the retirement of the space shuttle program, NASA paid Russia to transport astronauts to the ISS at about $80 million per seat on the Soyuz rocket. NASA’s biggest and newest rocket, the SLS (Space Launch System) which is currently being utilized for the new moon missions including Artemis and Orion, currently costs about $2-4 billion per launch.

But recent years and the addition of private space companies have drastically changed the game. NASA allowed private space companies to develop equipment for missions, including a 2006 partnership with SpaceX under the Commercial Orbital Transportation Services (COTS) program to provide resupply for crew and cargo demonstration contracts to the International Space Station (ISS). 

This partnership has continued to flourish over the years with SpaceX successfully launching two NASA astronauts in May 2020 on a Crew Dragon Spacecraft, making SpaceX the first private company to send astronauts to the ISS and the first crewed orbital launch from American soil in 9 years.

With the revolutionary technology of reusable boosters from SpaceX, the cost has plummeted, achieving less than $1,600 per kg with the Falcon Heavy (still totaling more than $100 million per launch) and even a projected cost of under a thousand for their next generation model Star Ship.

 These recent innovations are even making SLS the more expensive, less efficient option if SpaceX’s projections continue to progress as expected within margins of error. We shall see how NASA plans to adapt goals in light of this.

The Falcon Heavy is a cost-effective option for launching payloads into space.

The rise of private space companies

With private space companies, the opportunity for civilians to book a trip to space similar to booking a flight came closer to reality. Dennis Tito was the first private citizen to pay for a trip to space with a trip to the ISS from April 28th to May 6th, 2001 for $20 million dollars. Tito purchased his experience through Space Adventures Inc. which was founded in 1998 and offers a variety of different space experiences. They even acquired Zero Gravity Corporation, NASA’s provider of Reduced Gravity Training (not in space) for its astronauts, in 2008. They offer similar experiences for private individuals starting at about $8,200 as of this publishing (December 2022).

Space Adventures sent seven other space tourists to the ISS through 2009, but due to a number of factors, Space Adventures had to put their ISS offerings on hold until 2021 when they were able to purchase two Soyuz seats due to NASA moving their contract to SpaceX. Space Adventures sent two people to the ISS via the Roscosmos Soyuz rocket in December 2021 and is working on expanding its offerings.

In addition to Elon Musk’s SpaceX, there are a number of other private space companies getting into the commercial spaceflight/ space tourism market, most notably Richard Branson’s Virgin Galactic and Jeff Bezos’s Blue Origins.

Flight Providers & Rates

What are the current rates for commercial spaceflight tickets? What commercial spaceflight trips have already happened? All prices are per person/ per seat.

SpaceX has had the most experience in sending humans to space thanks to its partnership with NASA and Musk has made it clear that he wants to make space travel an option for the public. To date, SpaceX has offered two commercial spaceflight options and has one big one planned for the future:

• SpaceX completed a Multi-Day Orbital Voyage, the first of their new plan to offer private astronaut experiences through their NASA partnership.  
• Estimated $55 million for a 3-day stay inside a modified SpaceX Dragon capsule orbiting the Earth at 357 miles (574 km) with three crewmates, sponsored by billionaire Jared Isaacman to raise money for St Jude’s Children’s Hospital
• Partnership between SpaceX and Houston-based Axiom Space Inc.
• $55 million for a 10-day trip to ISS at 408 km with a weeklong (8-day) stay in the orbital lab. 
• Expected to continue in 2023
• Axiom plans to build a stand-alone space station to replace the ISS with the first module expected to launch in 2024.
• Steve Aoki: American DJ and record producer
• Everyday Astronaut Tim Dodd: American science communicator, content creator, photographer, and musician
• Yemi A.D.: Czech choreographer, art director and performer
• Rhiannon Adam: Irish photographer
• Karim Iliya: British photographer and filmmaker
• Brendan Hall: American filmmaker and photographer
• Dev Joshi: Indian television actor
• Choi Seung-hyun (stage name: T.O.P.): South Korean rapper, singer, songwriter, record producer, and actor
• Cost is unknown, likely a minimum of $500 million

2. Blue Origin

Blue Origin: currently offers a 100km 12-minute ride to the Karman Line, the recognized boundary between Earth’s atmosphere and outer space; pricing is still unclear and dependent on a variety of factors 

• On July 2021, Jeff and Mark Bezos went into space on the New Shepard rocket with Oliver Daemen (who won the trip through an auction bid of around 28 million) and honored guest Wally Funk (a member of Mercury 13, the private program in which women trained to be astronauts but ultimately never went to space)
• Blue Origin has completed 6 commercial space flights as of this publishing. Some “honorable guests” have been invited free of charge, such as Funk and actor William Shatner (Captain Kirk from the original Star Trek). Some have been sponsored or have received special deals due to their nonprofit status.
• $28 million winning auction bid for the first flight ( $19 million was donated)
• $1 million for a board member of a nonprofit
• About $1.25 for a Dude Perfect comedy group crew member, hosted by MoonDAO in August 2022

3. Virgin Galactic Subortbital Joy Ride

Virgin Galactic Subortbital Joy Ride: $450,000 for a 90-minute ride to suborbital space 50km above sea level 

• In July 2021, founder Richard Branson flew to the edge of Earth’s atmosphere with two pilots and three other Virgin Galactic employees as the first test of commercial spaceflight for the company
• Each VSS Unity SpaceShipTwo carries up to four passengers
• Expected flights are currently anticipated to begin in 2023 
• Includes training accommodations and amenities; launches from New Mexico

4. Roscosmos/ Space Adventures Customized ISS Trip

Roscosmos/ Space Adventures Customized ISS Trip: $50-60million for a 12-day trip to the ISS at 408 km

• In October 2021 an actress and director shot scenes for the first movie filmed in space
• December 2021 Japanese billionaire Yusaku Maezawa and Yozo Hirano for two days (same billionaire planning to go to the moon with SpaceX)
• With the current situation between Russia and Ukraine, this option is effectively nonexistent currently

5. Space Perspective

Space Perspective: a six-hour balloon ride to space/ the stratosphere on their “Spaceship Neptune” at $125,000

• Rides are currently scheduled to begin by the end of 2024. 
• A pressurized capsule will be slowly lifted by a football-field-sized hydrogen-filled balloon 19 miles (30 km) into the stratosphere, about 3 times the altitude of commercial planes. 
• The passenger cabin features a bar, bathroom, and windows for sightseeing and is expected to carry 8 passengers and 1 pilot per trip.

6. Aurora Space Station (no longer in development)

Aurora Space Station was supposed to be the world’s first luxury space hotel, offering a 12-day stay for $9.5 million allowing them to free float, observe space and earth, practice hydroponics and play in a hologram deck, but they shut down operations and refunded all deposits in March 2021. They received a lot of media attention and therefore are noted here due to that notoriety.

Conclusion: the current cost of flying to space

Currently, it is only available to those who can spend an average of $250,000 to $500,000 for suborbital trips (about a fifteen-minute ride to the edge of space and back) or flights to actual orbit at more than $50 million per seat (though typically a longer trip than 15 minutes).

It could be free/ discounted if you can find a sponsor, often for nonprofit/ charity purposes, or if you are someone of notoriety that can help spread the company’s mission. 

Waitlists are available for most offerings, with a deposit, with many stretching years into the future, which might end up helping you have a spot at a more reasonable price in the future if you can save up.

Many companies are looking to provide extended stay options on private space stations in the future, similar to how you might book a flight somewhere and stay in a hotel for a few days. Again, for the immediate future, this is estimated to cost tens of millions of dollars. The biggest portion of the cost would be launching them, though it is still estimated that a couple million dollars will be needed to cover the expenses of your stay while you are on the space station, whether that is included in the ticket price or added on top of that.

Many companies are hopeful they can eventually price a trip to space down to $100,000 but that will likely take some time, even with the cost-saving measures of reusable boosters. Many forms of recent technology have evolved exponentially in recent years and with dropping price rates as well. Just as plane travel was originally prohibitively expensive, but has now become fairly reasonable for the average consumer, the hope is that the same will eventually happen with space tourism, but we will have to see how long that takes. 

While the possibility of going to space is still out of reach for many of us, hopefully, the advancements in recent years and those yet to come will help to continually lower the costs of going to space, just as has occurred in many other fields. This author, for one, truly hopes that the interest of the elite who are currently able to participate in these offerings will spur research and development, not just of space tourism but space exploration in general, to help fuel a quicker journey to space access for all

Written by Sarah Hoffschwelle

Sarah Hoffschwelle is a freelance writer who covers a combination of topics including astronomy, general science and STEM, self-development, art, and societal commentary. In the past, Sarah worked in educational nonprofits providing free-choice learning experiences for audiences ages 2-99. As a lifelong space nerd, she loves sharing the universe with others through her words. She currently writes on Medium at  https://medium.com/@sarah-marie  and authors self-help and children’s books.

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This page is part of our collection of articles about astronauts . If you enjoyed the read, then you’ll love the following articles.

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This space tourism company wants to take people to the stratosphere with a helium balloon for $150,000. See inside its capsule designed by a former Ferrari designer.

Halo Space is a space-tourism company that uses helium balloons instead of rockets or jets.

CEO Carlos Mira plans to launch commercial flights in 2026,  and take 10,000 people to the stratosphere by 2030.

The company unveiled the interior of its capsule, designed by ex-Ferrari designer Frank Stephenson.

Halo Space was founded in 2021 with the goal of improving access to space tourism .

It would still be out of reach for most people, at around $150,000 a ticket, but by using helium balloons instead of jets or rockets, it's cheaper and more sustainable than the likes of Blue Origin and Virgin Galactic .

CEO Carlos Mira believes his company can take 10,000 people to the stratosphere within the next six years. He said Halo will start commercial flights in 2026.

Last Wednesday, the firm unveiled the interior of its capsule — designed by Frank Stephenson , a renowned industrial designer formerly of Ferrari and Maserati,.

Business Insider attended a London event hosted by the company to learn more about Halo Space and how it hopes to achieve its grand ambitions.

In the world of space tourism, the first companies that come to mind are the likes of SpaceX, Jeff Bezos' Blue Origin, and Virgin Galactic — which can cost millions of dollars for a ticket.

Halo Space is trying a different, cheaper route. It plans to use a capsule lifted by a helium balloon into the stratosphere.

The Spanish company says its capsules will cruise at 18 to 22 miles above the Earth — around the same height as Felix Baumgartner's record-breaking skydive back in 2012.

The best moments from Felix Baumgartner's supersonic jump

The trip would last for four to six hours in total. That's longer than a Blue Origin or Virgin Galactic flight, but less than SpaceX's.

But by using a balloon instead of jet engines, the price could be around $150,000 — compared to Virgin Galactic's $450,000; Blue Origin's $28 million; or Space X's $55 million. It's also more sustainable.

Only about 650 people have ever been to space. The firm's CEO, Carlos Mira, claimed `Halo can up that figure to 10,000 by 2030 — aiming for at least two flights a week.

It plans to launch the capsule from sites in the US, Australia, Spain, and Saudi Arabia. The firm will set up temporary venues for customers that reflect the country, described as "more than glamping."

At a press conference last Wednesday, Halo unveiled the interior of its space capsule, designed by Frank Stephenson — formerly of Ferrari and BMW.

Stephenson made his name designing the Fiat 500 and the BMW X5, among other cars, but has been more involved with aerospace firms in recent years. He previously spoke to Business Insider about his work designing electric-vertical-take-off-and-landing aircraft, or eVTOLs — commonly known as flying taxis . Like Halo, they're focused on sustainability.

Stephenson spoke about how his design firm constructed its own 1:1 scale model of the capsule in order to figure out the best possible layout. "Computers don't design, humans design. That's really the only way to capture the human touch," he said.

He and his team tried a few different arrangements to figure out how to best position the nine seats, which includes one for a pilot.

They settled on this design, with all the seats facing outwards during the main cruise to maximize the views. But during takeoff and landing, half face backward and half forward.

Stephenson shared the sketches of the seat design, showing how much thought went into details like the armrest and adjustable headrest.

The capsule also features fold-down dining trays to maximize space. The area at the bottom stores meals, hot or cold, and Halo says it would serve whatever the customer requests.

Stephenson said it was also important to maximize space for the bathroom: "Nobody likes a tight space. Even if you fly upper class in most commercial airliners, it's quite tight and uncomfortable."

The mannequin in the image represents the 95th percentile for male height.

One of the most intriguing features is its plans for augmented reality, like showing differing constellations in the sky or where on Earth the capsule is flying over.

Overall, the capsule is over 16 feet wide and 11 feet tall.

Halo has conducted five test flights since 2022 and hopes to launch commercial flights as soon as 2026.

But its grand ambitions won't be easy to achieve. Halo thinks it will first be certified by the Federal Aviation Administration before getting approval in other countries.

Some at the press conference questioned whether Halo could face a similar fate as OceanGate, which owned the submersible that imploded last year. "Is this another way for rich people to kill themselves?" asked Aerospace Magazine's editor in chief.

What is OceanGate? Meet the company that made a business out of risky deep-sea tours of the Titanic shipwreck.

"Safety, for us, is the priority," Mira replied. "We are using mature technologies. Balloons have been around for more than 200 years." He also noted that Halo has partnered with engineering firms like Aciturri.

Read the original article on Business Insider

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• About Space Future
• Masthead & Credits

• What's New
• Space Tourism
• Space Habitat
• Space Power
• Space Vehicles
• Front Page
• Who's Who
• Glossary of Terms
• Introduction

There are currently 222 documents in the archive.

Here are some key documents from the archive to get you started:

• What the Growth of a Space Tourism Industry Could Contribute to Employment, Economic Growth, Environmental Protection, Education, Culture and World Peace
• Space Tourism Market Demand and the Transportation Infrastructure
• General Public Space Travel and Tourism
• Artificial Gravity and the Architecture of Orbital Habitats
• Prospects of Space Tourism
• Directory of Contents
• Space Tourism
• Space Vehicles
• Space Habitat
• Space Power
• Space Future Journal
• Papers & Publications
• Bibliography
• Glossary of Terms
• Links to Other Sites

• How Much Do You Know About Space
• Space Future Editor Wins NewSpace Journalism Award
• China's First Manned Docking of Space Module Is a Success
• Five Horrifying Facts
• NASA Will Pay You to Eat Astronaut Food
• Attention Teachers: If You Don't Apply to This Workshop
• Space Is Dirty
• The Film That NASA Banned
• SRI holds Inaugural Conference
• Zubrin's Proposal to Fund "Pathway to the Stars"

Experimental flight regulations; spaceport regulations Waiver of liability; space traffic management

Use of government assets; privatization of zero-gravity flights Authority to license reentry vehicles

Certification of commercial transport systems operations Property rights: claims registry, deeds and liens, noninterference Environment: noise and debris, overland supersonic flights Removal or mitigation of orbital debris Financial, Economic, Business Planning and Market Considerations

Buzz Aldrin (Starcraft Enterprises) Robert Armstrong ( NASA Marshall Space Flight Center) Victoria Beckner ( LunaCorp , Inc.) Ivan Bekey (BDI; Initial NASA Study Lead) Collette Bevis ( X Prize Foundation) William Blerbauer (Lawyer) Gloria Bohan (Omega World Travel) Steve Brody ( NASA OSS/Mission From Planet Earth Office) Keith Calhoun-Senghor (DOC/Office of Air & Space Commercialization) Robert A Citron ( Kistler Aerospace ) Kelvin B Coleman (DOT/ FAA /Office of Comm. Space Transportation) Ed Cooper (Omega World Travel) Peter H Diamandis ( X Prize Foundation) Marcus Dinsmore (Omega World Travel) Norman Fast (F.B. Partners/Incredible Adventures) Stephen Fogleman ( NASA OLMSA; General Participant) Jerry Grey ( AIAA ) David Gump ( LunaCorp , Inc.) Robert L Haltermann (Haltermann & Associates) Rick Hauck (AXA Space) Professor Donald E. Hawkins (George Washington University) Patt Hill (Omega World Travel) Joe Howell ( NASA Marshall Space Flight Center) Walter Kistler ( Kistler Aerospace ) Sandra Morey Kreer (Travel Network) Chuck Larsen (DOT/ FAA /AST) Charles J Lauer (Orbital Properties, LLC) John C Mankins ( NASA Study Lead) Gregg Maryniak ( X-Prize Foundation) Neville Marzwell (California Institute of Technology) Wallace McClure ( Boeing North American) Tidal W McCoy (Thiokol) James Muncy (House of Representatives Staff) Dan O'Neil ( NASA Study Organizer) Scott Pace (RAND/Critical Technologies Institute) Michael R Paneri (Wimberly, Allison, Tong and Goo) William M Piland ( NASA Langley Research Center) Gene Pinder (US Space & Rocket Center) Carl S Rappaport (DOT/Office of Commercial Space Transportation) Tom Rogers ( STA Study Lead) Larry Rowell ( NASA Langley Research Center) T C Schwartz (T.C.S. Expeditions) Charles Scottoline ( Boeing North American (ret.); General Participant) David Smitherman ( NASA Marshall Space Flight Center) Eric W Stallmer ( STA Study Organizer) Thomas C Taylor (Global Outpost, Inc.) Harvey Willenberg ( Boeing Defense and Space Group) Lawrence R Young (MIT) John Spencer (Design Finance International) Harvey Wichman (Claremont McKenna College) Howard Wolff (Wimberly, Allison, Tong and Goo) Gordon Woodcock (Consultant) Dr. Molly Brennan (CCI; Workshop Organizer) Jack Pozza (CCI; Workshop Organizer)

Ingenuity Mars Helicopter

NASA's Ingenuity Mars Helicopter has completed 72 historic flights since first taking to the skies above the Red Planet.

Launch/Landing

Destination

Strapped to the Mars Perseverance rover's belly for the journey to Mars was a technology demonstration — the Mars Helicopter, Ingenuity, which completed 72 historic flights and became the first aircraft to achieve powered, controlled flight on another planet.

Meet Ingenuity

The legacy of ingenuity.

On April 19, 2021, NASA's Ingenuity Mars Helicopter made history when it completed the first powered, controlled flight on the Red Planet. It flew for the last time on January 18, 2024.   Designed to be a technology demonstration that would make no more than five test flights in 30 days, the helicopter eventually completed 72 flights in just under 3 years, soaring higher and faster than previously imagined. Ingenuity embarked on a new mission as an operations demonstration, serving as an aerial scout for scientists and rover planners, and for engineers ready to learn more about Perseverance’s landing gear debris. In its final phase, the helicopter entered a new engineering demonstration phase where it executed experimental flight tests that further expanded the team’s knowledge of the vehicle’s aerodynamic limits.

Ingenuity Timeline

April 3, 2021.

Four Feet on Mars

April 4, 2021

Surviving the First Night

April 8, 2021

First Rotor Spin Tests

April 19, 2021

First Flight

April 25, 2021

First Photo of Rover

May 7, 2021

Tech Demo Complete

July 5, 2021

Venturing to New Territory

July 24, 2021

First Scouting Flight

August 4, 2021

Another Rover Sighting

April 8, 2022

Setting the Distance Record

April 19, 2022

Sighting Rover's Landing Hardware

April 13, 2023

50 Flights and Beyond

October 5, 2023

Setting the Altitude Record

October 12, 2023

Setting the Groundspeed Record

January 25, 2024

NASA's Ingenuity Helicopter Mission Ends

5 Things to Know

1. The first aircraft to achieve powered, controlled flight on another planet, a feat that's been called a "Wright Brothers moment." 2. Completed 128.8 flying minutes, covering 10.5 miles (17.0 kilometers), and reaching altitudes as high as 78.7 feet (24.0 meters). 3. Successfully flying in the extremely thin Martian atmosphere. 4. Previewing areas of Mars of possible interest for the Perseverance rover to explore. 5. Paved the way for future aerial explorers at Mars and, potentially, other space destinations.

Helicopter Updates

Take a flight down memory lane to view archived mission updates provided by the Mars Helicopter team.

Ingenuity Resources

From its first days on the Martian surface through its 72 historic flights, view images and videos of the helicopter's journey on Mars.

Perseverance Rover Stories

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HALO Space unveils capsule design for stratospheric space 'glamping'

A Spanish balloon company plans to begin flying paying space tourists in 2026

LONDON — Stratospheric balloon company HALO Space plans to offer aspiring space travelers the space tourism equivalent of glamping. Instead of tight space suits and stomach-churning G-forces typically attached to a rocket flight, the company's pressurized capsule, attached to a helium-filled balloon, will offer comfy swivel seats, giant windows and a selection of fine cuisine.

The Spanish-headquartered firm unveiled the design of the 3.9-ton (3.5 metric tonnes) Aurora capsule at an event in London on Wednesday, April 10, and said it hoped to begin commercial operations in 2026. 

Unlike suborbital space tourism companies such as Virgin Galactic and Blue Origin , HALO Space won't be taking passengers high enough to experience weightlessness . The flight will be a rather leisurely affair lasting up to six hours, almost four of which will be spent hovering in the stratosphere some 22 miles (35 kilometers) above Earth's surface. There, high above the cloud tops, passengers will be able to admire the star-studded blackness of space above, as well as the curvature of the planet shrouded in the atmosphere beneath their feet.

Related: Space Perspective is nearly ready to fly tourists on luxury balloon rides near the edge of space (exclusive)

"When you talk to astronauts, they tell you that this experience of watching the planet from above is really something unique and extraordinary," HALO Space CEO Carlos Mira said in the press conference. "So far, only 650 humans have had the opportunity to experience this overview effect. But you don’t need to go all the way to space to have it. We hope to offer this experience to 1,000 people by 2030."

HALO Space is one of two companies currently readying its balloon technology to begin commercial operations in the next two years. The other is Florida-based Space Perspective, which revealed a completed test model of their Spaceship Neptune in February. HALO Space said they have conducted five test flights with a mockup and plan to take off for the first crewed test in 2025 before commencing flights with paying passengers a year later. 

Both companies hope their propositions will attract a wider customer base than the jerky rocket rides of Blue Origin and Virgin Galactic, which propel daredevil clients on short joy rides to the edge of space and back. Reaching an altitude nearly three times higher than stratospheric balloons, Virgin Galactic and Blue Origin's spacecraft experience several-minute-long spells of microgravity before falling back to Earth . 

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At $164,000 per seat, a trip with HALO Space will cost about a third of the price of a Virgin Galactic flight and won't require any advanced medical certifications. 

"The take-off will be like being in an elevator," said Mira. "The ascent is soft and gentle, climbing at 12 miles per hour."

The 16-foot-wide (5 meters) and 11.5-foot-tall (3.5 m) capsule will be made of aluminum alloy and composite materials. With an internal space of 30.4 square feet (2.8 square meters), the spaceship could host eight paying passengers, plus a pilot. The internal atmosphere will be maintained by a life-support system similar to that of an aircraft. Yet despite this crammed interior and the extreme environment outside the capsule, passengers should still feel perfectly comfortable and able to relax.

"It's meant to be a sort of a glamping experience," Frank Stephenson, creative director and founder of Frank Stephenson Design who led the design work said at the conference. "It's a high-level experience for these people who are used to flying first class rather than economy."

Stephenson, who had previously worked for high-end car makers including BMW, Ferrari, Maserati and McLaren, said the biggest challenge was keeping the capsule light enough so that it can be safely lifted by the balloon while still making sure every aspect of the interior lives up to the expectations of passengers. 

“It's very easy to add weight to things and make it super comfortable," Stephenson said. "It's more difficult to reduce weight, reduce material and still make it feel like a very unique experience."

When fully inflated, the stratospheric balloon will be 460 feet (140 meters) tall, towering over the gleaming space capsule. The balloon is designed to detach from the capsule during descent. The capsule will then be brought down to a landing under a steerable parachute. Mira said the balloon technology is inherently safer than rockets loaded with explosive fuels. It also produces no greenhouse gas emissions, making the experience 100 percent compliant with the most stringent environmental protection standards.

—  Space Perspective wants to take tourists on balloon rides to the stratosphere

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"We are using mature technologies," said Mira. "Balloons in general have been around for more than 200 years. This type of balloon, stratospheric balloons, have been around for almost 100 years. The first human went to the stratosphere on a balloon in 1931."

HALO Space plans to fly from spaceports in the Mojave Desert in the U.S., Spain, Australia and Saudi Arabia. The company is currently working with the U.S. Federal Aviation Administration to receive a license before its first crewed flight next year.  

Join our Space Forums to keep talking space on the latest missions, night sky and more! And if you have a news tip, correction or comment, let us know at: [email protected].

Tereza is a London-based science and technology journalist, aspiring fiction writer and amateur gymnast. Originally from Prague, the Czech Republic, she spent the first seven years of her career working as a reporter, script-writer and presenter for various TV programmes of the Czech Public Service Television. She later took a career break to pursue further education and added a Master's in Science from the International Space University, France, to her Bachelor's in Journalism and Master's in Cultural Anthropology from Prague's Charles University. She worked as a reporter at the Engineering and Technology magazine, freelanced for a range of publications including Live Science, Space.com, Professional Engineering, Via Satellite and Space News and served as a maternity cover science editor at the European Space Agency.

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From Space Dreams to Accessible Reality!

A deep dive into the future of space travel and commercial space activities.

28-29 January, 2025 Connect Conference Centre At Expo City, Dubai.

In a world filled with boundless opportunities, space travel stands as a testament to human innovation and the insatiable quest for knowledge. Nirvana MICE proudly hosts the most anticipated event in the MENA region showcasing the future of space travel and exploration. Space Travel Summit serves as a global platform to meet the space ecosystem – Interact and engage in discussions about the role and future of space travel with industry pioneers, visionaries, experts, enthusiasts, and entrepreneurs. This is an invaluable opportunity to exchange ideas, gain new insights, and cultivate meaningful connections that transcend conventional boundaries. Our esteemed lineup of speakers comprises a diverse range of industry luminaries – astronauts, researchers, innovators, and decision-makers bringing forth distinctive insights and expertise, enriching our collective understanding of the future of space travel. JOIN us this 28 & 29 of January 2025, Connect Conference Centre At Expo City, Dubai. – where groundbreaking ideas meet actionable strategies. Witness the incredible growth of the space travel industry, fueled by an unending fascination, and discover the vast resources that await us beyond Earth's atmosphere. Together, we champion inclusivity and accessibility, ensuring that the benefits of space exploration are accessible.

Key Statistics

Delegates Global Presence

Speakers Leading Industry Experts

Sessions Space Travel End to End

Networking Public & Private Sectors

Why Attend STS

Meet the ecosystem.

Interact with space travel industry pioneers and entrepreneurs. This is an invaluable opportunity to exchange ideas, gain new insights, and cultivate meaningful connections that transcend conventional boundaries.

Get Industry Updates

Access all the groundbreaking research and technologies that currently driving the space travel operations and growth. Enhance your knowledge reservoir, current plans and future goals.

Contribute to the Future

By participating, you have the opportunity to influence key conversations, drive innovative ideas, and play a role in shaping the strategies and technologies that will define tomorrow’s space travel industry.

Key Insights

Increase in global space industry revenue by 2040 according to Morgan Stanley.

16.2% in CAGR

Space Tourism market is projected to surpass 16.2% CAGR increase from 2023 to 2032 according to Precedence Research.

Public and Private markets invested $10 billion capital in space companies in 2021 only (Mckinsey).

178 Space Missions

In 2022, there were 178 space missions, 90 of which were conducted by the private sector with a decline of more than 95% in costs of launches into LEO (Nasdaq).

How Humanity Can Travel Incredibly Fast In Space Explored

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Limitless Space Institute compares the travel time of spacecraft propelled by nuclear power to that of imaginative fusion propulsion. Credit: Limitless Space Institute

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Never seen an exploding star? This year, you'll have your chance

Joe Hernandez

An artist's rendering shows the T Coronae Borealis star system, which contains a white dwarf and a red giant. Conceptual Image Lab/Goddard Space Flight Center/NASA hide caption

An artist's rendering shows the T Coronae Borealis star system, which contains a white dwarf and a red giant.

Space enthusiasts, thank your lucky stars.

Astronomers expect that this year you'll be able to see the explosion of a star system in our Milky Way galaxy by simply looking up at the sky.

Yes, we know you just spent all that time figuring out how to catch the solar eclipse.

But the upcoming nova of the T Coronae Borealis star system is far less common, occurring roughly once every 80 years. A nova takes place when a small star suddenly and dramatically brightens for a short period.

"Seeing that star blow up is much rarer than a solar eclipse," NASA astronomer Bill Cooke told NPR . "So it's kind of a once-in-a-lifetime thing."

Located about 3,000 light years from Earth, T Coronae Borealis is a binary star system containing a white dwarf and a red giant.

As the red giant heats up and its pressure grows, it starts spewing matter that's collected by the white dwarf, according to NASA . The smaller star, roughly the size of Earth, gets so overloaded with that matter that explodes.

This star ate its own planet. Earth may share the same fate

"Eventually it accumulates so much material that literally a thermonuclear reaction starts and the star brightens by hundreds of times. It just gets super bright," Cooke said.

Such an event is called a nova , derived from the Latin for "new star," because a once-dim celestial object suddenly becomes illuminated, giving the impression of a new star.

T Coronae Borealis is expected to nova at any moment between now and September. When it does, the star system could surge from a +10 magnitude, which can't be seen by the naked eye, to a +2 magnitude, roughly the same level of brightness as the North Star. (Higher positive numbers indicate dimmer stars.)

Astronomers say that once the nova reaches its peak brightness, it will be visible to viewers for several days. Those using binoculars will be able to see it for just over a week before it dims again.

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An outburst of T Coronae Borealis was scientifically observed in 1866, but it may have also been spotted as far back as 1217 by a German monk who documented an object that "shone with great light" for "many days." The star system last exploded in 1946.

NASA says the nova will be visible in the constellation Corona Borealis, which is a "small, semicircular arc" located between the constellations Bootes and Hercules.

When you do spot the T Coronae Borealis outburst, think about this: because the star system is so far away, the outburst we'll see will have already occurred about 3,000 years earlier.

"The collapse of the Bronze Age," said Cooke. "You know, the great empires of Egypt, Troy, they were falling apart."

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