Types of Space Tourism

Space tourism is a rapidly growing industry with various types of space travel experiences that cater to different levels of adventure, duration, and cost. These types can generally be categorized based on the altitude, duration of the trip, and whether the trip involves simply reaching the edge of space or actually orbiting the Earth. entails.

Types of Space Tourism

Below are the major types of space tourism, along with their characteristics and what each type of experience

1 Suborbital Space Tourism

Definition: Suborbital space tourism involves brief trips that take passengers just beyond the boundary of space, typically above 100 kilometers (62 miles), which is known as the Kármán Line. These trips do not involve reaching Earth’s orbit but instead involve a short, high-altitude trajectory that gives passengers the experience of space without going into orbit.

Characteristics:

Duration: The entire suborbital flight lasts between 10-15 minutes, including the ascent and descent.
Altitude: Suborbital flights reach the edge of space but do not enter Earth’s orbit. They typically travel between 80 km and 100 km above the Earth’s surface, reaching the Kármán Line (internationally recognized boundary of space).
Weightlessness: Passengers experience a few minutes of weightlessness or microgravity as they reach the peak of the flight. This is the most significant space-related experience for tourists.
Re-entry: After reaching the peak altitude, the spacecraft returns to Earth, typically gliding or descending in a controlled freefall.

Key Players:

Virgin Galactic: SpaceShipTwo is a suborbital spaceplane launched from an aircraft at high altitude before firing its rocket engines to propel the craft into suborbital space. Passengers experience a brief period of weightlessness before gliding back to Earth.
Blue Origin: New Shepard is a fully automated suborbital rocket system that takes passengers to the edge of space. It features a separate capsule and rocket system, with passengers experiencing several minutes of weightlessness before returning to Earth.

Experience:

Views of Earth: Passengers can see the curvature of the Earth and witness the vastness of space in a way that is impossible from the ground.
Zero Gravity: Passengers experience a few minutes of zero gravity, allowing them to float freely in the spacecraft.
Accessible Price Point: Suborbital flights are currently the most affordable form of space tourism, with tickets ranging from $250,000 to $500,000, depending on the provider.

2 Orbital Space Tourism

Definition: Orbital space tourism involves traveling into Earth’s orbit, allowing tourists to spend a more significant amount of time in space—usually several days to weeks. Unlike suborbital flights, orbital flights are much more complex and require travelers to achieve and sustain orbital velocity to remain in orbit around the Earth.

Characteristics:

Duration: Orbital flights can last from several days to weeks, depending on the mission. For instance, a trip to the International Space Station (ISS) usually lasts around seven days, though private missions have lasted longer.
Altitude: Orbital tourists usually travel to low Earth orbit (LEO), which ranges from 200 km to 2,000 km above Earth’s surface. The ISS orbits at approximately 400 km above Earth.
Spacecraft: Orbital tourism requires the use of spacecraft that can achieve and sustain orbital velocity (around 28,000 km/h or 17,500 mph) to prevent falling back to Earth immediately. These missions are typically launched aboard crewed rockets like SpaceX’s Dragon capsule or Russian Soyuz spacecraft.

Key Players:

SpaceX: SpaceX offers orbital flights aboard the Crew Dragon spacecraft, which is designed to carry both astronauts and private tourists to space. The Inspiration4 mission in 2021 marked the first all-civilian orbital flight, where the crew spent several days orbiting Earth.
Axiom Space: Axiom Space plans to offer missions to the ISS, where private astronauts will be able to live and work in space, experiencing orbital life for extended periods.
Russian Soyuz: Russian space agency Roscosmos has been offering space tourism since 2001, with private individuals flying to the ISS aboard Soyuz spacecraft.

Experience:

Extended Stay in Space: Tourists have the opportunity to experience a longer stay in space, where they can live aboard space stations like the ISS, conduct research, and see Earth from a completely new perspective.
Weightlessness: Similar to suborbital tourism, tourists in orbit experience prolonged weightlessness, making it possible to float freely inside the spacecraft.
Training: Due to the longer duration and complexity of the mission, orbital space tourists typically undergo rigorous training to prepare for the conditions of space, including safety procedures, life support systems, and physical training.

Cost: Orbital space tourism is much more expensive than suborbital travel, with ticket prices for a trip to the ISS or orbital missions ranging from $30 million to $50 million, depending on the duration and specific mission.

3 Lunar and Deep Space Tourism

In the coming decades, space tourism could become more accessible to the general public. While this remains a distant goal, the industry’s trajectory points toward a future where space travel is not solely for the ultra-wealthy:

Lower Ticket Prices: As previously mentioned, the cost of space travel is expected to decrease as companies perfect reusable technologies. If ticket prices for suborbital flights drop to the range of $50,000 to $100,000, they could be within reach for a broader group of affluent consumers. Over time, economies of scale and technological advances could bring prices even lower, making space travel accessible to more people.
Government and Corporate Support: Governments, along with corporations, might subsidize space tourism for employees or select groups, much like NASA has partnered with private companies for missions to the ISS. This could provide more opportunities for non-astronauts to travel to space.
Increased Safety and Comfort: In the future, space tourism will benefit from advancements in safety protocols, spacecraft design, and life-support systems. The experience will likely become more comfortable and less physically taxing for passengers, allowing a wider demographic, including older adults, people with disabilities, and children (with parental consent), to participate.
Spaceports: To accommodate the growing number of tourists, spaceports will become as common as airports. As commercial space travel increases, infrastructure will be developed around these spaceports, making access to space easier and more frequent for a wider variety of people.

Cost: Trips to the Moon and beyond are currently speculative and would cost hundreds of millions of dollars, making them affordable only for the wealthiest individuals or those backed by large organizations or governments.

Space tourism is rapidly evolving, offering various levels of exploration depending on the mission’s duration, destination, and complexity. As the industry matures, suborbital flights are already becoming a reality, with orbital tourism set to follow closely behind. Meanwhile, the more ambitious plans for lunar and deep space travel may still be a decade or more away, but they represent the next frontier in human space exploration.

Each type of space tourism offers unique experiences, from the brief thrill of suborbital weightlessness to the awe-inspiring adventure of orbiting Earth or venturing to the Moon. As the technology advances and costs decrease, space tourism may eventually become accessible to a much larger segment of the population, transforming space exploration into a new form of travel.