Space Tourism

Space Tourism is a developing industry wherein private citizens are transported from the surface of the Earth on short flights into suborbital space. While services have previously been available for people to travel into space through national space agencies, costs were prohibitively high. Private companies have begun developing reusable craft to lower the cost for shorter trips to and from space.

Fast Facts

1. First space tourist: Dennis Tito, a multi-millionaire from California
2. Pioneered by the Russian Space Agency
3. Passengers would ride aboard a Russian rocket and stay in the International Space Station
4. Cost for trip: $20 million
5. Private companies such as Virgin Galactic and XCOR Aerospace are developing suborbital passenger craft
6. Commercial flights will begin as early as 2009 for Virgin Galactic,¹ and 2010 for XCOR²
7. Average cost for commercial flight into space: $200,000

First Space Tourists

1. April 31, 2001: Dennis Tito (American)
2. April 25, 2002: Mark Shuttleworth )South African
3. October 1, 2005: Greg Olsen (American)
4. September 18, 2006: Anousheh Ansari (American, of Iranian descent)
5. April 7, 2007: Charles Simonyi (Hungarian)³

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