Space Tourism Managers

On April 12, 1961, the Soviet Union launched the first person (Yuri Gagarin) into space. A few weeks later on May 5, 1961, Alan B. Shepard became the first American in space. For almost three decades, space flight was the dominion of the United States, Soviet Union, and China. In 1990, Orbital Sciences Corporation launched Pegasus. It was the first launch vehicle that was fully developed by a private company. On April 30, 2001, U.S. businessman Dennis Tito became the world’s first space tourist. He paid $20 million to be transported to the International Space Station (ISS) via a Russian Soyuz rocket. In 2020, SpaceX became the first private company to launch humans into orbit—sending NASA astronauts Doug Hurley and Bob Behnken into space via its Crew Dragon capsule. In 2021, SpaceX once again made history by becoming the first private spaceflight company to launch an all-civilian crew into space. Until this flight, only seven civilians had paid to fly in space (via U.S.-based Space Adventures’ use of Russian Soyuz rockets).

The successful launches of orbital and suborbital flights by SpaceX, Blue Origin, Virgin Galactic, and other private companies have created a new age of space tourism—albeit only for wealthy individuals. The majority of launches in the next few years will be suborbital in nature, but advances in technology and the deep pockets of aspiring space tourists point to an expansion in orbital space tourism and eventually tourism “missions” to the moon and Mars. In fact, Japanese billionaire Yusaku Maezawa, has funded a SpaceX tourism mission to fly around the moon. He will bring eight members of the public to join him for free on the mission, which he calls dearMoon. The mission is expected to launch in 2023. Space tourism opportunities are also developing in the form of zero-pressure balloon trips that travel up to 18 or 19 miles above the earth (which is much lower than the 50+ miles reached by Virgin Galactic and Blue Origin). Companies such as World View and Space Perspective are advertising zero-pressure balloon trips in a pressurized capsule, but the Federal Aviation Administration has yet to approve this form of space tourism.