Space Tourism: All You Need To Know About Recreational Human Space Travel

On 11 July 2021, Virgin Group founder Sir Richard Branson, along with two pilots, Dave Mackay and Michael Masucci, and three Galactic employees — Beth Moses, Colin Bennett and Sirisha Bandla made history by successfully flying to the edge of space in a rocket plane.

Founder of Amazon and owner of Blue Origin Jeff Bezos will follow suit on 20 July. He will be accompanied by his brother Mark, an 82-year old member of the Mercury-13 space program Wally Funk, and a mystery person who paid $28 million for a seat at an auction.

With SpaceX scheduling an all-civilian spaceflight to Earth’s orbit in later this year, commercial space travel seems a lot more plausible today for civilians like you and me.

This guide here illustrates all the important things that you need to know before you make any plans to travel to the moon and beyond. Listening to a Spotify playlist about space while reading this is optional but highly recommended!

A Brief History of Space Tourism

Sir Branson and Jeff Bezos may be the first billionaires to travel to space, but they are not the first space tourists in history.

Since humankind’s first trip to space on 12 April 1961, most space visits have been funded either through government programs or corporate initiatives. The idea of space tourism was first conceived in the 1970s when President Richard Nixon announced the Space Shuttle program designed to carry up to 74 passengers into orbit.

As the century turned, space tourism officially began when an American engineer and businessman Dennis Tito purchased a ticket to travel to Russia’s Mir Space station.

When Mir was decommissioned in 2001, Tito had managed to transfer his $20 million ticket fare for a trip to the International Space Station (ISS) instead. This made Tito the first private citizen to pay for his own travel to space.

Since then, six (6) other private travelers had made a similar trip to the ISS on tickets reported to cost between $20 million and $35 million per trip.

Options For Space Travels and Flight Providers Available Today

Fast forward to today, private citizens who dream of visiting space can do so in four ways.

Space tourism to Mars is not a viable option just yet. We will not be seeing anyone doing a cover of a David Bowie hit on Mars anytime soon since a manned mission to the Red Planet is still very difficult, very expensive and very risky.

Although NASA is committed to sending humans to Mars by the 2030s and SpaceX are actively trying to colonise the planet, no one has also stepped foot on Mars’ surface to date. Moreover, less than half of the 48 missions to Mars completed successfully.

Depending on the of type space travel you would like to go for, you now also have an option of four sub-orbital and orbital flight providers to choose from.

Preparing Yourself For A Space Travel

The screening and selection process for space travel was rigorous during the days of the Mercury program in the late 1950s. As the space travel industry opens up to civilians, the screening and selection criteria became more flexible and lenient.

It essentially means now that anyone who is of legal age (i.e. at least 18 years old), physically and mentally healthy, and not forgetting, having a great deal of money to spend can fly to space.

Despite the lowered bar, all space travelers are required to prepare themselves adequately to ensure a safe and enjoyable trip.

Conclusion

Space travel has come a long way since the days of Yuri Gagarin, Alan Shepard, and Neil Armstrong. With the rate of how space technology is advancing, the opportunity for commercial space travel is looking more promising by the day.

While the cost for space travel will disintegrate a civilian’s wallet, Sir Richard Branson believes that the price will one day become more affordable as the industry matures and more cost-efficient spaceships are built.

If you are one of those people who look to the night skies and wish to be touched by the stars, your wish may be fulfilled sooner than you think.

Continue to dream and dream big, my friends. The sky is no longer your limit.