Space tourism is tourism in which participants pay for flights Human spaceflight is spaceflight with a human crew and possibly passengers. This makes it unlike robotic space probes or remotely-controlled satellites. Human spaceflight is sometimes called manned spaceflight, a term now deprecated by major space agencies in favor of its gender-neutral alternative into space. As of 2010, orbital space tourism opportunities are limited and expensive, with only the Russian Space Agency The Russian Federal Space Agency , commonly called Roscosmos (Роскосмос Roskosmos) and abbreviated as FKA (ФКА) and RKA (РКА), is the government agency responsible for the Russian space science programme and general aerospace research. It was previously the Russian Aviation and Space Agency (Russian: Российское авиаци providing transport. The price for a flight brokered by Space Adventures Space Adventures, Ltd. is a Virginia, USA based space tourism company founded in 1998 by Eric C. Anderson. As of 2010[update], they offer zero-gravity atmospheric flights, orbital spaceflights, and other spaceflight-related experiences including cosmonaut training, spacewalk training, and launch tours. They have announced future plans for sub- to the International Space Station The International Space Station is an internationally developed research facility that is being assembled in low Earth orbit. On-orbit construction of the station began in 1998 and is scheduled for completion by late 2011. The station is expected to remain in operation until at least 2015, and likely 2020. With a greater mass than that of any aboard a Soyuz spacecraft Soyuz ; English: Union) is a series of spacecraft designed for the Soviet space program by the Korolyov Design Bureau. The Soyuz succeeded the Voskhod spacecraft and was originally built as part of the Soviet Manned Lunar program is US$ The United States dollar is the official currency of the United States. The U.S. dollar is normally abbreviated as the dollar sign, $, or as USD or US$ to distinguish it from other dollar-denominated currencies and from others that use the $ symbol. It is divided into 100 cents 20–35 million. The space tourists usually sign contracts with third parties to conduct certain research while in orbit. This helps to minimize their own expenses.

Infrastructure for a suborbital space tourism industry is being developed through the construction of spaceports A spaceport, astrodrome or cosmodrome is a site for launching (or receiving) spacecraft, by analogy with seaport for ships or airport for aircraft. The word spaceport, and even more so cosmodrome, has traditionally been used for sites capable of launching spacecraft into orbit around Earth or on interplanetary trajectories. However, rocket launch in numerous locations, including California California's geography ranges from the Pacific coast to the Sierra Nevada mountain range in the east, to Mojave desert areas in the southeast and the Redwood–Douglas fir forests of the northwest. The center of the state is dominated by the Central Valley, one of the most productive agricultural areas in the world. California is the most, Oklahoma A major producer of natural gas, oil and agriculture, Oklahoma relies on an economic base of aviation, energy, telecommunications, and biotechnology. It has one of the fastest growing economies in the nation, ranking among the top states in per capita income growth and gross domestic product growth. Oklahoma City and Tulsa serve as Oklahoma's, New Mexico The state's total area is 121,412 square miles . The eastern border of New Mexico lies along 103° W longitude with the state of Oklahoma, and three miles (5 km) west of 103.5° W longitude with Texas. On the southern border, Texas makes up the eastern two-thirds, while the Mexican states of Chihuahua and Sonora make up the western third, with, Florida With an area of 65,758 square miles , it is ranked 22nd in size among the 50 U.S. states. Florida has the most coastline in the Contiguous United States encompassing approximately 1,200 miles. The state has four large urban areas, a number of smaller industrial cities, and many small towns, Virginia The area's history begins with several indigenous groups, including the Powhatan. In 1607 the London Company established the Colony of Virginia as the first permanent New World English colony. Land from displaced Native American tribes and slave labor each played significant roles in the colony's early politics and plantation economy. Virginia was, Alaska Alaska was purchased from the Russian Empire on March 30, 1867, for $7.2 million at about two cents per acre . The land went through several administrative changes before becoming an organized territory on May 11, 1912, and the 49th state of the U.S. on January 3, 1959, Wisconsin The word Wisconsin has its origins in the name given to the Wisconsin River by one of the Algonquian speaking American Indian groups living in the region at the time of European contact. French explorer Jacques Marquette was the first European to reach the Wisconsin River and record its name, arriving in 1673 and calling the river Meskousing in, Esrange Esrange is a rocket range and research centre located outside the town of Kiruna in northern Sweden. It is a base for scientific research with high altitude balloons, investigation of the aurora borealis, sounding rocket launches, and satellite tracking, among other things. Located 200 km north of the Arctic Circle and surrounded by a vast in Sweden Sweden (pronounced /ˈswiːdən/ SWEE-dən, Swedish: Sverige [ˈsvær.jə]), officially the Kingdom of Sweden (Swedish: Konungariket Sverige (help·info)), is a Nordic country on the Scandinavian Peninsula in Northern Europe. Sweden has land borders with Norway to the west and Finland to the northeast, and water borders with Denmark, Germany and as well as the United Arab Emirates The United Arab Emirates (Arabic: دولة الإمارات العربية المتحدة‎, Dawlat al-Imārāt al-‘Arabīyah al-Muttaḥidah, short-name:The Emirates, local short-name:Al Emarat الامارات) is a federation of seven emirates situated in the southeast of the Arabian Peninsula in Southwest Asia on the Persian Gulf, bordering. Some use the term "personal spaceflight" as in the case of the Personal Spaceflight Federation The Commercial Spaceflight Federation is a private spaceflight industry group, incorporated as an industry association for the purposes of establishing ever higher levels of safety for the commercial human spaceflight industry, sharing best practices and expertise, and promoting the growth of the industry worldwide.

A number of startup companies A startup company or startup is a company with a limited operating history. These companies, generally newly created, are in a phase of development and research for markets. The term became popular internationally during the dot-com bubble when a great number of dot-com companies were founded. A high tech startup company is a startup company have sprung up in recent years, hoping to create a space tourism industry. For a list of such companies, and the spacecraft they are currently building, see list of space tourism companies This page is a list of non-governmental entities that currently offer – or are planning to offer – equipment and services geared towards spaceflight, both robotic and human spaceflight.

Russia halted space tours since 2010, however it is planning to resume them in 2012, when the number of single-use three-man Soyuz Soyuz , Union) is a series of spacecraft designed for the Soviet space program by the Korolyov Design Bureau. The Soyuz succeeded the Voskhod spacecraft and was originally built as part of the Soviet Manned Lunar program launches rises to five a year.^[1][2][3]

Early dreams

After early successes in space, much of the public saw intensive space exploration Space exploration is the use of astronomy and space technology to explore outer space. Physical exploration of space is conducted both by human spaceflights and by robotic spacecraft. While the observation of objects in space, known as astronomy, predates reliable recorded history, it was the development of large liquid-fueled rocket engines as inevitable. Those aspirations are remembered in science fiction such as Arthur C. Clarke Sri Lankabhimanya Sir Arthur Charles Clarke, CBE, FRAS was a British science fiction author, inventor, and futurist, most famous for the novel 2001: A Space Odyssey, written in parallel of the script for the eponymous film, co-written with film-director Stanley Kubrick; and as a host and commentator in the British television series Mysterious's A Fall of Moondust A Fall of Moondust is a science fiction novel by Arthur C. Clarke, first published in 1961. It was nominated for a Hugo Award for Best Novel, and was the first science fiction novel selected to become a Reader's Digest Condensed Book and also 2001: A Space Odyssey 2001: A Space Odyssey is a science fiction novel by Arthur C. Clarke. It was developed concurrently with Stanley Kubrick's film version and published after the release of the film. The story is based in part on various short stories by Clarke, most notably "The Sentinel" (written in 1948 for a BBC competition but first published in 1951, Roald Dahl's Charlie and the Great Glass Elevator Charlie and the Great Glass Elevator is a children's book by British author Roald Dahl. It is the sequel to Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, continuing the story of young Charlie Bucket and eccentric candymaker Willy Wonka as they travel in the Great Glass Elevator, Joanna Russ's 1968 novel Picnic on Paradise, and Larry Niven Laurence van Cott Niven is an American science fiction author. Perhaps his best-known work is Ringworld (1970), which received Hugo, Locus, Ditmar, and Nebula awards. His work is primarily hard science fiction, using big science concepts and theoretical physics. It also often includes elements of detective fiction and adventure stories. His's Known Space Known Space is the fictional setting of several science fiction novels and short stories written by author Larry Niven. It has also in part been used as a shared universe in the Man-Kzin Wars spin-off anthologies sub-series stories. Lucian Lucian of Samosata was an Assyrian rhetorician, and satirist who wrote in the Greek language. He is noted for his witty and scoffing nature in the second century AD Anno Domini and Before Christ (abbreviated as BC or B.C.) are designations used to label years in the Julian and Gregorian calendars. The calendar era to which they refer is based on the traditionally reckoned year of the conception or birth of Jesus, with AD denoting years after the start of this epoch, and BC denoting years before the start of in his book True History True History or True Story is a fantastic travel tale by the Greek-speaking Syrian author Lucian of Samosata, the earliest known fiction about travelling to outer space, alien life-forms and interplanetary warfare. Written in the second century CE, the novel has been referred to as "the first known text that could be called science fiction& examines the idea of a crew of men whose ship travels to the Moon during a storm. Jules Verne Jules Gabriel Verne was a French author who helped pioneer the science-fiction genre. He is best known for his novels A Journey to the Centre of the Earth (1864), From the Earth to the Moon (1865), Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea (1869–1870), Around the World in Eighty Days (1873) and The Mysterious Island (1875) also took up the theme of lunar visits in his books, From the Earth to the Moon From the Earth to the Moon is a humorous science fantasy novel by Jules Verne and is one of the earliest entries in that genre. It tells the story of the president of a post-American Civil War gun club in Baltimore, his rival, a Philadelphia maker of armor, and a Frenchman, who build an enormous sky-facing Columbiad space gun and launch themselves and Around the Moon Around the Moon , Jules Verne's sequel to From the Earth to the Moon, is a science fiction novel continuing the trip to the moon which left the reader in suspense after the previous novel. It was later combined with From the Earth to the Moon to create A Trip to the Moon and Around It. Robert A. Heinlein Robert Anson Heinlein was an American science fiction writer. Often called "the dean of science fiction writers", he was one of the most popular, influential, and controversial authors of the genre. He set a high standard for science and engineering plausibility and helped to raise the genre's standards of literary quality. He was one of’s short story The Menace from Earth "The Menace From Earth" is a science fiction short story by Robert A. Heinlein, first published in 1957, published in 1957, was one of the first to incorporate elements of a developed space tourism industry within its framework. During the 1960s and 1970s, it was common belief that space hotels would be launched by 2000. Many futurologists The Oxford English Dictionary traces earliest English usage of the term 'futurist' to 1842, referring to Christian scriptural futurists. The next usage occurs with the Italian and Russian Futurists of the early 20th century , an artistic, literary, and political movement that sought to reject the past and rather uncritically embraced speed, around the middle of the 20th century speculated that the average family of the early 21st century would be able to enjoy a holiday on the Moon The Moon is Earth's only natural satellite[nb 4] and is the fifth largest satellite in the Solar System. It is the largest natural satellite in the Solar System relative to the size of its planet, a quarter the diameter of Earth and 1/81 its mass, and is the second densest satellite after Io. It is in synchronous rotation with Earth, always. In the 1960s, Pan Am Pan American World Airways, commonly known as Pan Am, was the "flagship" international airline of the United States from the 1930s until its collapse on December 4, 1991. Founded in 1927 as a scheduled air mail and passenger service operating between Florida and Havana, Cuba, the airline became a major company credited with many established a waiting list for future flights to the moon The Moon is Earth's only natural satellite[nb 4] and is the fifth largest satellite in the Solar System. It is the largest natural satellite in the Solar System relative to the size of its planet, a quarter the diameter of Earth and 1/81 its mass, and is the second densest satellite after Io. It is in synchronous rotation with Earth, always,^[4] issuing free "First Moon Flights Club" membership cards to those who requested them.

The end of the Space Race The Space Race was a technological and ideological competition between the Soviet Union and the United States (USA) for supremacy in outer-space exploration during the mid-to-late 20th century. The term refers to a specific period in human history, 1957-1975, and does not include subsequent efforts by these or other nations to explore space. The, however, signified by the Moon landing The Apollo program was an American spaceflight endeavor that landed the first humans on Earth's Moon. Conceived during the presidency of Dwight D. Eisenhower and conducted by NASA, Apollo began in earnest after President John F. Kennedy's May 25, 1961 special address to a joint session of Congress declaring a national goal of "landing a man, decreased the emphasis placed on space exploration by national governments and therefore led to decreased demands for public funding of manned space flights Human spaceflight is spaceflight with a human crew and possibly passengers. This makes it unlike robotic space probes or remotely-controlled satellites. Human spaceflight is sometimes called manned spaceflight, a term now deprecated by major space agencies in favor of its gender-neutral alternative.^[5]

Precursors

The Soviet space program was aggressive in broadening the pool of cosmonauts An astronaut or cosmonaut is a person trained by a human spaceflight program to command, pilot, or serve as a crew member of a spacecraft. While generally reserved for professional space travelers, the term is sometimes applied to anyone who travels into space, including scientists, politicians, journalists, and tourists. The Soviet Intercosmos Intercosmos was a space exploration program of the Soviet Union designed to include members of military forces of allied Warsaw Pact countries in manned and unmanned missions. Governments of neutral or non-aligned countries, such as France and India, also participated. Begun in April 1967 with unmanned research satelite missions, the first manned program also included cosmonauts selected from Warsaw Pact The Warsaw Treaty is the informal name for the mutual defense Treaty of Friendship, Cooperation and Mutual Assistance commonly known as the Warsaw Pact subscribed by eight communist states in Eastern Europe, which was established at the USSR’s initiative and realized on 14 May 1955, in Warsaw, Poland members (from Czechoslovakia, Poland, East Germany, Bulgaria, Hungary, Romania) and later from allies of the USSR The Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR, Russian: Союз Советских Социалистических Республик, tr. Soyuz Sovetskikh Sotsialisticheskikh Respublik IPA: [sɐˈjʊs sɐˈvʲeʦkʲɪx səʦɪəlʲɪˈstʲiʨɪskʲɪx rʲɪsˈpʊblʲɪk] , abbreviated СССР, SSSR), informally known as the Soviet Union ( (Cuba, Mongolia, Vietnam) and non-aligned The Non-Aligned Movement is an intergovernmental organization of states considering themselves not formally aligned with or against any major power bloc. The movement is largely the brainchild of India's first Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru, president of Egypt Gamal Abdul Nasser and Yugoslav president Josip Broz Tito. It was founded in Belgrade (1 countries (India, Syria, Afghanistan). Most of these cosmonauts received full training for their missions and were treated as equals, but especially after the Mir program began, were generally given shorter flights than Soviet cosmonauts. The European Space Agency The European Space Agency , established in 1975, is an intergovernmental organisation dedicated to the exploration of space, currently with 18 member states. Headquartered in Paris, ESA has a staff of more than 2,000 with an annual budget of about €3.6 billion in 2009 took advantage of the program as well.

The U.S. space shuttle program included payload specialist In NASA vernacular, a Payload Specialist was an individual selected and trained by commercial or research organizations for flights of a specific payload on a Space Shuttle mission. Payload specialists included non-NASA astronauts designated by the international partners, individuals selected by the research community, or a company or consortia positions which were usually filled by representatives of companies or institutions managing a specific payload on that mission. These payload specialists did not receive the same training as professional NASA astronauts and were not employed by NASA. In 1983, Ulf Merbold from ESA and Byron Lichtenberg from MIT (engineer and Air Force fighter pilot) were the first Payload Specialists to fly on the shuttle, becoming the first non-NASA astronauts. In 1984, Charlie Walker became the first non-government astronaut to fly, with his flight paid for by his employer, McDonnell Douglas. NASA was also eager to prove its capability to Congressional sponsors. Senator Jake Garn was flown on the shuttle in 1985, followed by Representative Bill Nelson (now Senator) in 1986. As the shuttle program expanded, the Teacher in Space program was developed as a way to expand publicity and educational opportunities for NASA. Christa McAuliffe would have been the first Teacher in Space, but was killed in the Challenger disaster and the program was canceled. During the same period a Journalist in Space program was frequently discussed, with individuals such as Walter Cronkite considered a front-runners, but no formal program was ever developed. McAuliffe's backup in the Teacher in Space Program, Barbara Morgan, eventually got hired in 1998 as a professional astronaut and flew on STS-118 as a mission specialist where she spoke to many students as an educator during the trip.

A second journalist-in-space program, in which NASA green-lighted Miles O'Brien to fly on the space shuttle, was scheduled to be announced in 2003. That program was canceled in the wake of the Columbia accident on STS-107 and subsequent emphasis on finishing the International Space Station before retiring the space shuttle.

With the realities of the post-Perestroika economy in Russia, its space industry was especially starved for cash. The Tokyo Broadcasting System (TBS) offered to pay for one of its reporters to fly on a mission. For $28 million, Toyohiro Akiyama was flown in 1990 to Mir with the eighth crew and returned a week later with the seventh crew. Akiyama gave a daily TV broadcast from orbit and also performed scientific experiments for Russian and Japanese companies. However, since the cost of the flight was paid by his employer, Akiyama could be considered a business traveler rather than a tourist.

In 1991, British chemist Helen Sharman was selected from a pool of 13,000 applicants to be the first Briton in space.^[6] The program was known as Project Juno and was a cooperative arrangement between the Soviet Union and a group of British companies. The Project Juno consortium failed to raise the funds required, and the program was almost cancelled. Reportedly Mikhail Gorbachev ordered it to proceed under Soviet expense in the interests of international relations, but in the absence of Western underwriting, less expensive experiments were substituted for those in the original plans. Sharman flew aboard Soyuz TM-12 to Mir and returned aboard Soyuz TM-11.

Orbital space tourism

At the end of the 1990s, MirCorp, a private venture by then in charge of the space station, began seeking potential space tourists to visit Mir in order to offset some of its maintenance costs. Dennis Tito, an American businessman and former JPL scientist, became their first candidate. When the decision to de-orbit Mir was made, Tito managed to switch his trip to the International Space Station through a deal between MirCorp and U.S.-based Space Adventures, Ltd., despite strong opposition from senior figures at NASA. Space Adventures remains the only company to have sent paying passengers to space.^[7][8]

In conjunction with the Federal Space Agency of the Russian Federation and Rocket and Space Corporation (Energia), Space Adventures facilitated the flights for all of the world's first private space explorers. The first three participants paid in excess of $20 million (USD) each for their 10-day visit to the ISS.

On April 28, 2001, Dennis Tito became the first "fee-paying" space tourist when he visited the International Space Station (ISS) for seven days. He was followed in 2002 by South African computer millionaire Mark Shuttleworth. The third was Gregory Olsen in 2005, who was trained as a scientist and whose company produced specialist high-sensitivity cameras. Olsen planned to use his time on the ISS to conduct a number of experiments, in part to test his company's products. Olsen had planned an earlier flight, but had to cancel for health reasons.

After the Columbia disaster, space tourism on the Russian Soyuz program was temporarily put on hold, because Soyuz vehicles became the only available transport to the ISS. However, in 2006, space tourism was resumed (Why?). On September 18, 2006, Anousheh Ansari, an Iranian American (Soyuz TMA-9), became the fourth space tourist (she prefers "private space explorer".^[9]). On April 7, 2007, Charles Simonyi, an American businessman of Hungarian descent, joined their ranks (Soyuz TMA-10). Simonyi became the first repeat space tourist, paying again to fly on Soyuz TMA-14 in March-April 2009. Guy Laliberté became the next space tourist in September, 2009 aboard Soyuz TMA-16.

In 2003, NASA and the Russian Space Agency agreed to use the term 'Spaceflight Participant' to distinguish those space travelers from astronauts on missions coordinated by those two agencies. Tito, Shuttleworth, Olsen, Ansari, and Simonyi were designated as such during their respective space flights.^[10] NASA also lists Christa McAuliffe as a "Space Flight Participant" (although she did not pay a fee), apparently due to her non-technical duties aboard the STS-51-L flight.

As reported by Reuters on 3 March 2010, Russia announced that the country will double the number of launches of three-man Soyuz ships to four that year, because "permanent crews of professional astronauts aboard the expanded [ISS] station are set to rise to six"; regarding space tourism, the head of the Russian Cosmonauts' Training Center said "for some time there will be a break in these journeys".^[1] Then, on 18 March 2010 Interfax news agency reported that Russia plans to launch five Soyuz spacecrafts a year since 2012: four per the ISS program, and an additional spacecraft which may be used for space tourism.^[2]

List of flown space tourists

Seven of the space tourists flew to and from the International Space Station on Soyuz spacecraft through the space tourism company, Space Adventures:^[11]

Suborbital flights

More affordable suborbital space tourism is viewed as a money-making proposition by several other companies, including Space Adventures, Virgin Galactic, Starchaser, Blue Origin, Armadillo Aerospace, XCOR Aerospace, Rocketplane Limited, the European "Project Enterprise",^[14] and others. Most are proposing vehicles that make suborbital flights peaking at an altitude of 100-160 kilometres.^[15] Passengers would experience three to six minutes of weightlessness, a view of a twinkle-free starfield, and a vista of the curved Earth below. Projected costs are expected to be about $200,000 per passenger.^{[16][17][18][19][20]}

As of November 2007 Virgin Galactic had pre-sold nearly 200 seats for their suborbital space tourism flights, according to the company's president.^[21]

The X Prize

On October 4, 2004, the SpaceShipOne, designed by Burt Rutan of Scaled Composites, won the $10,000,000 X Prize, which was designed to be won by the first private company who could reach and surpass an altitude of 62 miles (100 km) twice within two weeks. The altitude is beyond the Kármán Line, the arbitrarily defined boundary of space.^[22] The first flight was flown by Michael Melvill on June 21, 2004 to a height of 62 miles, making him the first commercial astronaut.^[23] The prize-winning flight was flown by Brian Binnie, which reached a height of 69.6 miles, breaking the X-15 record.^[22]

Virgin Galactic

Virgin Galactic, one of the leading potential space tourism groups, is planning to begin passenger service aboard the VSS Enterprise, a Scaled Composites SpaceShipTwo type spacecraft. The initial seat price will be $200,000, but that price is expected to eventually fall to $20,000. To date, over 80,000 people have made down payments on bookings. Headed by Sir Richard Branson's Virgin Group, Virgin Galactic hopes to be the first private space tourism company to regularly send civilians into space. A citizen astronaut will only require three days of training before spaceflight. SpaceShipTwo is a scaled up version of SpaceShipOne, the spacecraft which claimed the Ansari X Prize. Both spacecraft were designed by Burt Rutan's Scaled Composites. Launches will initially occur at the Mojave Spaceport in California, and will then be moved to Spaceport America in Upham, New Mexico. Tourists will also be flown from Kiruna, Sweden^[24] The spacecraft will travel 360,000 feet (109.73 km/68.18 miles) high. This goes beyond the internationally defined boundary between Earth and space of 100 km. Spaceflights will last 2.5 hours, carry 6 passengers, and reach a speed of Mach 3. SpaceShipTwo will not require a space shuttle-like heat shield for atmospheric reentry as it will not experience the extreme aerodynamic heating experienced during reentry at orbital velocities (approximately Mach 22.5 at a typical shuttle altitude of 300 km, or 185 miles).^[25] The glider will employ a "feathering" technique to manage drag during the unpowered descent and landing. SpaceShipTwo will use a single hybrid rocket motor to launch from mid-air after detaching from a mother ship at 50,000 feet, instead of NASA's space shuttle's ground-based launch.

Project Enterprise

Project Enterprise was launched by the German TALIS Institute in 2004 and is the first project of its kind in Europe.^[26] The goal is to develop a rocket-propelled spaceplane by 2011 that will carry one pilot and up to five passengers into suborbital space. The plane will launch from the ground using rockets, and will return in an unpowered flight like Virgin Galactic's SpaceShipTwo. The prototypes and finished spaceplane will be launched from an airport near Cochstedt (Germany; Saxony-Anhalt).

Since 2004, the TALIS Institute has gained many industrial partners, including XtremeAir,^[27] who will manufacture the airframe, and Swiss Propulsion Laboratory SPL,^[28] who will deliver the propulsion components. XtremeAir is known for their acrobatic airplanes, and SPL has designed and tested liquid propellant rocket engines since 1998.

Current work is focusing on the first prototype, the "Black Sky": An existing acrobatic airplane that would be fitted with a single rocket engine and a new wing. The rocket engine is expected to deliver a thrust of 10 kN. The test program for this engine started in 2007 at SPL and is expected to fly by 2010.^[29][30]

Legality

United States

In December 2005, the U.S. Government released a set of proposed rules for space tourism.^[31] These included screening procedures and training for emergency situations, but not health requirements.

Under current US law, any company proposing to launch paying passengers from American soil on a suborbital rocket must receive a license from the Federal Aviation Administration's Office of Commercial Space Transportation (FAA/AST). The licensing process focuses on public safety and safety of property, and the details can be found in the Code of Federal Regulations, Title 14, Chapter III.^[32] This is in accordance with the Commercial Space Launch Amendments Act passed by Congress in 2004.^[33]

Orbital flights, space stations and space hotels

• EADS Astrium, a subsidiary of European aerospace giant EADS, announced its space tourism project on June 13, 2007.^[34]
• SpaceX is a private space company which is developing their own rocket family called Falcon and a capsule named Dragon, capable of sending up to 7 people to any space station, either ISS or a possible station by Bigelow Aerospace. Falcon 1 has already undertaken testflights and successfully completed its first commercial flight on July 14, 2009, deploying the Malaysian RazakSAT into orbit. Falcon 9 (which will be the rocket for the Dragon capsule) was first launched June 4, 2010 at Space Launch Complex 40 in Cape Canaveral.^{[citation needed]} An initial prototype of the Dragon capsule is expected to be used on this test flight; SpaceX anticipates that Dragon could be qualified for human spaceflight within 3 years of the receipt of NASA CCDV funding.^[35]
• Space Adventures Ltd. have also announced that they are working on circumlunar missions to the moon, with the price per passenger being $100,000,000.^[36] They are currently developing spaceports at the United Arab Emirates (Ras al-Khaimah) and in Singapore.^{[dated info]}
• Orbital space tourist flights are also being planned^[when?] by Excalibur Almaz, using modernized TKS space capsules.^[37]

Several plans have been proposed for using a space station as a hotel.^[38] American motel tycoon Robert Bigelow has acquired the designs for inflatable space habitats from the Transhab program abandoned by NASA. His company, Bigelow Aerospace, has already launched two first inflatable habitat modules. The first, named Genesis I, was launched 12 July 2006. The second test module, Genesis II, was launched 28 June 2007. Both Genesis habitats remain in orbit as of mid-2009. As of 2006, Bigelow planned to officially launch the first commercial space station by 2012 (tagged Nautilus) which will have 330 cubic meters (almost as big as the ISS's 425 cubic meters of usable volume).^[39][40]

Bigelow Aerospace is currently offering the America's Space Prize, a $50 million prize to the first US company to create a reusable spacecraft capable of carrying passengers to a Nautilus space station.^{[citation needed]}

Other companies have also expressed interest in constructing "space hotels". For example, Excalibur Almaz plans to modernize and launch its Soviet-era Almaz space stations, which will feature the largest windows ever on spacecraft.^{[citation needed]} Virgin's Richard Branson has expressed his hope for the construction of a space hotel within his lifetime. He expects that beginning a space tourism program will cost $100 million.^[16] Hilton International announced the Space Islands Project, a plan to connect together used space shuttle fuel tanks, each the diameter of a Boeing 747 aircraft.^[41] A separate organization, Space Island Group^[42] announced their distinct Space Island Project (note the singular "Island"), and plans on having 20,000 people on their "space island" by 2020, with the number of people doubling for each decade.^[43] British Airways has expressed interest in the venture. If and when Space Hotels develop, it would initially cost a passenger $60,000, with prices lowering over time.^[44]

Fashion designer Eri Matsui has designed clothing, including a wedding gown, intended to look best in weightless environments.^{[citation needed]}

Advocacy, education, and industry organizations

Several organizations have been formed to promote the space tourism industry, including the Space Tourism Society, and others.^[45][46][47] More information about the future of Space Tourism can be found at Space Tourism Lecture, which is a free online Space Tourism Lecture handout collection. Since 2003 Dr. Robert A. Goehlich and Pierluigi Polignano teaches the world's first and only Space Tourism class at Keio University, Yokohama, Japan. UniGalactic Space Travel Magazine is a bi-monthly educational publication covering space tourism and space exploration developments in companies like SpaceX, Orbital Sciences, Virgin Galactic and organizations like NASA. The content of UniGalactic Space Travel Magazine can be found on UniGalactic web site.

Opinions of commercial space tourism

A web-based survey suggested that over 70% of those surveyed wanted less than or equal to 2 weeks in space; in addition, 88% wanted to spacewalk (only 74% of these would do it for a 50% premium), and 21% wanted a hotel or space station.^[48]

The concept has met with some criticism from bureaucrats, notably Günter Verheugen, vice-president of the European Commission, who said of the EADS Astrium Space Tourism Project "It's only for the super rich, which is against my social convictions".^[49]

Objections to "space tourist" terminology

Dennis Tito, Mark Shuttleworth, Gregory Olsen, Anousheh Ansari and Richard Garriott have all expressed a preference to be called something other than "space tourist". In each case, they explained their preferences by pointing out that they carried out scientific experiments as part of their journey; Garriott additionally emphasized their training is identical to requirements of non-Russian Soyuz crew members, and that teachers and other non-professional astronauts chosen to fly with NASA are called astronauts.^[50] Garriott prefers "cosmonaut" or "astronaut", but will accept "private" in front of either. Tito has asked to be known as an "independent researcher".^{[citation needed]} Shuttleworth proposed "pioneer of commercial space travel".^[51] Olsen preferred "private researcher."^[52] Ansari prefers the term "private space explorer".^[9] Alone among those who have paid to go to orbit so far, Charles Simonyi seems to have no concerns about calling it "space tourism", even in reference to his own experience. Asked in an interview "Do you foresee a day when space tourism is not just the province of billionaires - when it will be as affordable as plane travel?", he did not object to the implicit categorization of his own trip, but rather answered "Yes, the only question is when ...."^[53]

NASA and the Russian Federal Space Agency agreed to use the term "spaceflight participant" to distinguish those space travelers from astronauts on missions coordinated by those two agencies.

Although many space enthusiasts subscribe to the notion of space tourism as a potential burgeoning industry that could further the development and settlement of space, some of these same enthusiasts object to the use of the term "space tourist". Rick Tumlinson of the Space Frontier Foundation, for example, has said

"I hate the word tourist, and I always will .... 'Tourist' is somebody in a flowered shirt with three cameras around his neck."^[54]

Others with perhaps less enthusiasm for space development seem to agree. Alex Tabarrok has categorized it as a kind of "adventure travel". The mere fact of people paying for a travel experience does not, in his view, make that activity "tourism".

"At best and for the foreseeable future space travel will remain akin to climbing Everest, dangerous and uncommon. Yes, we might see 100 flights a year but that's not space tourism - tourism is fat guys with cameras."^[55]

Brian Binnie, and Mike Melvill, the pilots of Scaled Composites Space Ship One were awarded the title of Commercial Astronaut by the United States Federal Aviation Administration. This is a new classification that distinguishes the holder as an astronaut, but is not associated with the United States NASA space program.

See also

• Commercialization of space
• Commercial astronaut
• Launch loop
• Quasi Universal Intergalactic Denomination
• Space colonization
• Space Tourism Society
• Spaceflight participant
• Sex in space
• Space architecture
• Timeline of Solar System exploration

Businesses

• List of private spaceflight companies
• Armadillo Aerospace
• Bigelow Aerospace
• Blue Origin
• MirCorp
• Space Adventures
• Space Transport Corporation (STC)
• Virgin Galactic

References

1. ^ ^{a b} "Russia halts space tours as U.S. retires Shuttle". 2010-03-03. http://www.reuters.com/article/idUSTRE6223VF20100303.
2. ^ ^{a b} Russia will restore space tourism since 2012 (in Russian)
3. ^ Russia to resume space tourism in 2012, RT, March 18, 2010
4. ^ Beveridge, Dirk (1991-07-05). "Pan Am lunar list tethered to earth". St. Petersburg Times. http://news.google.com/newspapers?id=-7wMAAAAIBAJ&sjid=dl8DAAAAIBAJ&pg=5479,3673315&dq=pan-am+space-odyssey. Retrieved 2009-06-01.
5. ^ Space: the forgotten frontier?. 2003-03-01. http://www.oecdobserver.org/news/fullstory.php/aid/963/Space:_the_forgotten_frontier_.html.
6. ^ "1991: Sharman becomes first Briton in space"]. BBC News (BBC News Online). 1991-05-18. http://news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/dates/stories/may/18/newsid_2380000/2380649.stm. Retrieved 2010-01-04.
7. ^ "Int'l space station ticket price climbs". AP. http://abcnews.go.com/Technology/wireStory?id=3391085.
8. ^ Boyle, Alan (June 13, 2006). "Regulators OK Oklahoma spaceport - Suborbital test flights could begin in 2007, setting stage for tourists". MSNBC. http://msnbc.msn.com/id/13304491. Retrieved 2006-06-26.
9. ^ ^{a b} "www.anoushehansari.com". http://www.anoushehansari.com/. Retrieved 2006-09-22.
10. ^ "Payload Specialist Astronauts". http://www.jsc.nasa.gov/Bios/PS/index.html. Retrieved 2007-05-20.
11. ^ howstuffworks.com. "How Space Tourism Works". http://science.howstuffworks.com/space-tourism.htm.
12. ^ Charles in Space Charles Simonyi's blog and video blog about his trip to the ISS
13. ^ NASA (2008). "Expedition 18". NASA. http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/station/expeditions/expedition18/index.html. Retrieved September 26, 2008.
14. ^ "Project Enterprise". http://www.european-spacetourism.eu. Retrieved 2008-03-26.
15. ^ Scotland 2040: Spaceships head for Moon with lunar golfers and crater ramblers aboard. 2006-10-12. http://news.scotsman.com/topics.cfm?tid=6&id=1510152006.
16. ^ ^{a b} British tycoon wants to fly you to space: Virgin Galactic plans to sell $200,000 rides. San Francisco Chronicle. 2004-09-28. http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/c/a/2004/09/28/MNG99906EQ1.DTL.
17. ^ "X PRIZE Foundation". http://www.xprize.org/.
18. ^ "Space Adventures". http://www.spaceadventures.com/.
19. ^ "Zero Gravity Corporation". http://www.nogravity.com/.
20. ^ The Last Frontier Of Tourism (article by Stefan Tiron, published by monochrom)
21. ^ "Spaceflights now for sale; scary part is price". Seattle Post-Intelligencer. November 14, 2007. http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/business/339535_spacetourism14.html.
22. ^ ^{a b} SpaceShipOne Captures X-Prize October 4, 2004
23. ^ SpaceShipOne pilot bio: Michael W. Melvill May 2005
24. ^ [1] — see also Spaceport Sweden
25. ^ Flight to Orbit. http://exploration.grc.nasa.gov/education/rocket/rktrflght.html.
26. ^ european-spacetourism.eu. "Project Enterprise" (in German). european-spacetourism.eu. http://www.european-spacetourism.eu. Retrieved 2008-03-26.
27. ^ "Project Enterprise - XtremeAir". http://www.xtremeair.de. Retrieved 2008-03-26.
28. ^ "Project Enterprise - Swiss Propulsion Laboratory SPL". http://www.spl.ch. Retrieved 2008-03-26.
29. ^ Die Top Ten der privaten Raumfahrt (2) (German)
30. ^ Project Enterprise new debut
31. ^ US draws up space tourism rules
32. ^ Electronic Code of Federal Regulations. http://ecfr.gpoaccess.gov/cgi/t/text/text-idx?sid=f32ec318140f194f1e3f1981d8192833&c=ecfr&tpl=/ecfrbrowse/Title14/14cfrv4_02.tpl#300.
33. ^ Congress Passes Space Tourism Bill. MSNBC. 2004-12-23. http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/6682611/.
34. ^ Europe joins space tourism race, Times online, June 10, 2007
35. ^ Official SpaceX Updates, Update from 2009-09-23.
36. ^ $100 Million Moon Trip: Space Tourism's Hot Ticket?. 2005-08-10. http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2005/08/0810_050810_moontrip.html.
37. ^ http://www.spaceflightnow.com/news/n0908/18almaz/
38. ^ "Space hotels". http://www.spacefuture.com/tourism/hotels.shtml.
39. ^ A Room with a View of Mars, Please. 2006-10-06. http://www.tfot.info/content/view/77/.
40. ^ "An interview with Michael Gold about Bigelow Aerospace". http://www.tfot.info/content/view/77/.
41. ^ "Hilton to back space hotel". BBC News. 1999-03-09. http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/sci/tech/293366.stm. Retrieved 2007-05-20.
42. ^ "The Space Island Group's Mission". 2006. http://www.spaceislandgroup.com/home.html. Retrieved 2007-05-20.
43. ^ http://www.spaceislandgroup.com/sig-vision.html.
44. ^ Space Future - Prospects of Space Tourism]. 1996=05-15. http://www.spacefuture.com/archive/prospects_of_space_tourism.shtml.
45. ^ Space Tourism Society
46. ^ "Space Future Journal". http://www.spacefuture.com/.
47. ^ Space Tourism: Personal Spaceflight for you .... http://www.hobbyspace.com/Tourism.
48. ^ http://www.space.com/news/061003_tourism_survey.html.
49. ^ "EU official balks at space tourism" (). 2007-06-15. http://www.thepeninsulaqatar.com/Display_news.asp?section=World_News&subsection=Rest+of+the+World&month=June2007&file=World_News2007061523649.xml .
50. ^ "Do Not Call Me A Space Tourist". http://www.richardinspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=blog.welcome&theyear=2008&themonth=1&view=18. Retrieved 2008-12-02.
51. ^ ""Space tourist" insists on pioneering role". New Scientist. http://www.newscientist.com/article/dn2190-space-tourist-insists-on-pioneering-role.html. Retrieved 2008-05-03.
52. ^ "Space millionaire to mix science with pleasure publisher= MSNBC". http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/4623674/. Retrieved 2008-06-03.
53. ^ Arango, Tim (2007-05-25). "From the Iron Curtain to the Final Frontier". Fortune magazine. http://money.cnn.com/magazines/fortune/fortune_archive/2007/05/28/100033715/?postversion=2007052514. Retrieved 2008-06-05.
54. ^ Foust, Jeff. "Is it time to dump the t-word?". http://www.thespacereview.com/article/280/1. Retrieved 2008-06-03.
55. ^ Tabarrok, Alex. "Romance and Realism in Space Tourism". http://www.marginalrevolution.com/marginalrevolution/2004/11/space_tourism_i.html. Retrieved 2008-06-03.

External links

• Space travel guide from Wikitravel
• Space Tourists (A documentary film by Christian Frei)
• Selling Peace (A book about early space tourism and privatization)
• Galactic Suite Space Hotel
• Galactic Suite Design Aerospace Experiences
• Bloon Near-Space travel

Categories: Space tourism | Space tourists | Types of tourism | Russian inventions | American inventions

See Also:

• List of Space Tourism Companies: Encyclopedia
• Space Exploration
• Space Exploration
• Space: Dictionary
• Spacewalk: Encyclopedia

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