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The burgeoning space tourism industry could soon fuel significant global warming while also depleting the protective ozone layer that is crucial for sustaining life on Earth, a new study concludes. The findings, published Saturday in Earth's Future, raise additional concerns about the "billionaire space race" fueled by some of the world's richest men.

A key focus of the study was emissions of black carbon, or soot, from the combustion of rocket fuel. Black carbon, which comes from burning fossil fuels or biomass, absorbs light from the sun and releases thermal energy, making it a powerful climate warming agent. At lower altitudes black carbon quickly falls from the sky, remaining in the atmosphere for only a matter of days or weeks.

However, as rockets blast into space, they emit black carbon into the stratosphere where it remains, absorbing sunlight and radiating heat, for up to four years before falling back down to Earth. Black carbon emitted in the stratosphere is nearly 500 times worse for the climate than similar emission on or near the surface of the earth, the study found. Black carbon emissions from all space flights are currently relatively low but could quickly increase if projections for the growth of space tourism prove correct.

"A big ramp up in the number of space launches, which is hoped for by the space tourism industry, poses a risk to the climate by adding black carbon particles to the upper atmosphere and as a result, we should think very carefully about regulating this industry before it gets out of hand," Robert Ryan, a researcher at University College London and the study's lead author, said. "It would be a real shame for humanity to look back in 50 or 100 years when we've got thousands of rocket launches a year and think, 'If only we'd done something.'"

To calculate the impact of spaceflights, Ryan and colleagues produced an inventory of all pollutants released from the 103 rockets launched worldwide in 2019, as well as data on the re-entry of reusable rockets and space junk descending back into Earth's atmosphere.

The researchers then plugged the emissions data into atmospheric chemistry and heat transfer models to determine their impact on ozone depletion and climate change. They also included recent projections of anticipated flights by space tourism companies Virgin Galactic, Blue Origin and SpaceX to plot potential future emissions from the industry.

After just three years of more than once-a-day rocket launches, space tourism would account for 6 percent of warming due to black carbon emissions despite contributing just 0.02 percent of global black carbon emissions, the study concluded.

The study also found that rockets deplete the Earth's atmospheric ozone layer, which protects the planet from harmful ultraviolet radiation from the sun. Rockets that burn solid, chlorine-based fuels harm ozone by releasing chlorine, which destroys ozone, directly into the stratosphere. Chlorine-containing chemicals, such as chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs), were banned under the Montreal Protocol, an international agreement to protect atmospheric ozone that was adopted in 1987. Solid fuel rockets were not part of the ban.

Regardless of the fuel type used, all rockets contributed to additional ozone depletion through the emissions of nitrogen oxides upon re-entry into the stratosphere.

A second study that also looked at the climate and ozone impacts of rocket launches and was published earlier this month, came to similar conclusions. The study, published in JGR Atmospheres, projected that increased emissions from space tourism would also disrupt global atmospheric circulation, slowing the transport of air from the tropics to the poles in the upper atmosphere.

This decrease in circulation would result in a slight reduction of atmospheric ozone concentrations in the northern hemisphere, said Christopher Maloney, the study's lead author and a research scientist with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.

"Anytime you see anything that impacts ozone, it's worthy of further investigation," he said.

Stephen Andersen, research director for the Washington-based Institute for Governance and Sustainable Development, said the recent studies further the climate and ozone concerns related to rocket launches that NASA scientists first raised nearly half a century ago.

"Over the last 45 years, they came to the same conclusion," Andersen said of research done by NASA and others. "Current emissions are not a significant source, but they would be incredibly significant if the projections of space flights prove true."

By one measure, public opinion turned against space tourism last year as some of the world's most wealthy individuals blasted into space amid an ever-warming climate and the ongoing Covid pandemic.

U.S. spaceflight company Virgin Galactic, which was founded by British billionaire Richard Branson and hopes to offer 400 flights per year from its "spaceport" in New Mexico, did not respond to a request for comment.

But, the company appears to be aware of the climate concerns posed by space tourism. In its most recent annual financial report filed with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, Virgin Galactic stated that the company "may be adversely affected by global climate change or by legal, regulatory or market responses to such change."

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Blue Origin, the space tourism company owned by Amazon founder Jeff Bezos, envisions "millions of people living and working in space for the benefit of Earth."

Company executives did not respond to a request for comment. Blue Origin's rockets burn liquid hydrogen and oxygen and emit water vapor and nitrogen oxides, but not black carbon. Emissions from hydrogen fuel rockets in the upper atmosphere pose less of a threat than other rocket types, but emissions of nitrogen oxides in the stratosphere and the emissions that go into producing liquid hydrogen on earth are still a concern, Ryan said.

Elon Musk, the founder of SpaceX and the world's richest person, tweeted in December that SpaceX plans to remove carbon dioxide from the atmosphere and turn it into rocket fuel. Musk is also funding a $100 million prize for the development of carbon removal. While many seek to turn CO2 into fuel, such efforts remain unproven. Rockets that burn fuel derived from carbon dioxide would also likely result in emissions of black carbon and nitrogen oxides in the upper atmosphere.

Andersen said efforts to reduce emissions are helpful but international regulations are needed to curb climate and ozone threats posed by increased commercial space flights.

"They need to think before they act and they ought to consider all the options of minimizing the impact," he said. "Then the final decision over whether it's worthwhile to society to allow this enterprise should be made in some kind of a governance way."

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Space Tourism Poses a Significant 'Risk to the Climate' - Inside Climate News

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The burgeoning space tourism industry could soon fuel significant global warming while also depleting the protective ozone layer that is crucial for sustaining life on Earth, a new study concludes. The findings, published Saturday in Earth's Future, raise additional concerns about the "billionaire space race" fueled by some of the world's richest men.

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Here is what I found

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The interior of the Blue Origin capsule, which can hold six people.
Blue Origin

How much does a ticket to space cost? That depends on who you book with, how you want to get there and whether you get lucky or not.

On the day that billionaire Amazon and Blue Origin founder Jeff Bezos goes to space it's worth knowing that a ticket to reach space can cost as much as $55 million for a "proper" orbital flight and a visit to the International Space Station (ISS)-and as little as nothing at all.

Can you really get to space for free? Sure you can, by entering a competition to win Virgin Galactic tickets via Omaze.com. As space tourism flights on Blue Origin and Virgin Galactic get scheduled, likely in 2022, look out for more competitions.

In an article on the MoneyTransfers.com website an expert predicts that sub-orbital space travel-like that of Blue Origin and Virgin Galactic-could cost around $100,000 within a decade.

Space tourism is an industry previously predicted by Bank of America Merrill Lynch as one that could grow to $2.7 trillion in 30 years.

MORE FROM FORBES 'The Vehicles Are Ready To Fly' As Blue Origin Prepares To Send Jeff Bezos To Space

The distinction between sub-orbital and orbital space tourism is key. While sub-orbital "up and down" missions in supersonic planes and rockets-such as Virgin Galactic and Blue Origin-orbital missions are much longer and much pricer.

The private 10-day Axiom Mission 1 including an 8-day stay at the ISS, planned for January 2022, is costing each of the four private astronauts a whopping $55 million for a seat in a SpaceX Crew Dragon capsule.

That makes the $28 million paid to Blue Origin during an auction for a seat on the first 11-minute sub-orbital flight-a seat that will now be used by an 18-year old from The Netherlands -appear vastly over the odds.

MORE FROM FORBES See Jeff Bezos In Space Before A 'Buck Moon' Meets Giant Planets: What You Can See In The Night Sky This Week

Although "space for all" is a phrase often heard from space tourism industry, demand for the first batch of flights is likely to be huge, leading to big asking prices. It's rumoured that Blue Origin could ask $500,000, though prices aren't yet known.

The same goes for Virgin Galactic, which plans to begin private flights to space during 2022. It charged $250,000 for tickets until it paused ticket sales a few years ago. While it has said it wants to charge $40,000, that's in the long term.

MORE FROM FORBES Can You Watch A Blue Origin In West Texas?

The most affordable way to pay to get to space would be appear to be via a company called Space Perspective, which plans to launch a pressurized capsule propelled by a high-performance space balloon.

In a six-hour flight costing $125,000 per person, passengers in Spaceship Neptune and Neptune One will lift-off from Space Coast Spaceport in Florida, though not until 2024.
Wishing you clear skies and wide eyes.
Follow me on Twitter or LinkedIn. Check out my website or some of my other work here.

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How Much Is A Ticket To Space? $100,000 If You Can Wait A Decade-But Here's How To Pay Nothing

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How much does a ticket to space cost? That depends on who you book with, how you want to get there and whether you get lucky or not.

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The past, present and future of space tourism

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The past, present and future of space tourism

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When Austrian journalist Gerhard Pistor requested to book a trip to the moon in 1964, his travel agency forwarded his query to Pan American World Airways-Pan Am. The now-defunct airline accepted the reservation and noted that the first flights to the moon would take off in the year 2000. So began a years-long space-tourism marketing stunt in which some 93,000 people joined Pan Am's First Moon Flights Club, a waiting list for the first civilian trips to the moon.

That, of course, never happened. But as the Space Age advanced, space tourism did, too. In 2001, American entrepreneur Dennis Tito became the first true space tourist, launching aboard a Russian Soyuz spacecraft and spending more than a week aboard the International Space Station (ISS)-reportedly spending $20 million to do so.

Today, we're in a new era of space tourism, with growing numbers of civilians leaving Earth for brief moments through private enterprises focusing on such endeavors. And in the coming decades, we may even see the dawn of regular long-duration space vacations.

The Birth of Space Tourism

After the Apollo era, companies investigated opportunities to send civilians rather than government professionals-that is, NASA astronauts-into space. In the 1970s, manufacturing conglomerate Rockwell International, a contractor for NASA's Space Shuttle program, researched the possibility of passenger modules that could fit into the payload bay of the Space Shuttle, with similar concepts developed by other companies over the subsequent decade. None came to fruition.

NASA did open up its spaceflights to nongovernment professionals, though, primarily as payload specialists, who were tasked to complete specific in-flight projects by companies outside of NASA. NASA also developed the Teacher in Space and Journalist in Space programs to open up spaceflight to several civilians annually. But the programs were ended after the Challenger disaster in 1986, which killed the first Teacher in Space participant, Christa McAuliffe, along with her six crew members. The program was considered for a revival, but that, too, was ended after a Space Shuttle failure-this one, the fatal Columbia disaster in 2003.

Space tourism finally became successful in 2001 with Tito's launch to the ISS. That trip was organized by a company called Space Adventures, which ultimately saw eight other space tourists take trips to the ISS through 2009, each launched on a Russian Soyuz spacecraft. But these tourist flights ended after the retirement of NASA's Space Shuttle program in 2011. Because the only spacecraft capable of human spaceflight at that time was the Soyuz, every seat on every launch was needed for professional astronauts from around the world, and tourism was put on the back burner.

Space Tourism Today

For the past decade, private space tourism companies have been developing spacecraft to take passengers on suborbital flights, which bring them to the edge of space and back down to Earth in relatively short "hops" lasting anywhere from a few minutes to a few hours. By comparison, the first nine Space Adventure clients flew orbital missions that encircled the planet for days.

The method of flight varies by company. Blue Origin, for instance, launches vertically like most rockets, whereas Virgin Galactic flies a rocket-powered space plane that is launched from the belly of a carrier aircraft. While these two companies are the only suborbital companies cleared by the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) for launches-both have already carried passengers to space-other companies are preparing for liftoff. That includes space-balloon companies Space Perspective and World View, which offer a far more leisurely journey than rocket-powered ascents, gently lifting passengers to high altitudes in a high-tech version of a hot air balloon. Across all suborbital space tourism companies, prices range from approximately $50,000 to $450,000 per seat.

Orbital tourism has also made a comeback, though at far higher prices: tens of millions of dollars per seat. SpaceX, which is contracted by NASA to launch astronauts to the ISS, is also available for private charters. In 2021, entrepreneur Jared Isaacman organized the Inspiration4 mission, the world's first all-civilian mission, during which he and three crewmates orbited the Earth in a SpaceX Crew Dragon capsule as a fundraiser for St. Jude Children's Research Hospital. In 2022, SpaceX provided the launch vehicle for the Axiom mission 1 (Ax-1), the world's first all-civilian mission to the ISS, during which four crew members spent eight days onboard the orbiting research facility.

Space Adventures is also back in business; it organized a flight to the ISS for Japanese entrepreneur Yusaku Maezawa, who traveled to space in December 2021. Maezawa intends to charter SpaceX's under-development Starship spacecraft for a moon mission called the dearMoon project, taking with him eight civilians on the journey.

What's Next for Space Tourism

Space tourism remains in its nascent phase, with plenty of work to be done. Existing suborbital companies are still tweaking launch vehicles and increasing launch cadence to approach regularity, while upcoming ones are waiting for FAA approval to begin their operations. And, hopefully, the space tourism companies will eventually be able to reduce the cost of flights, too.

But many enterprises are already eyeing the future when it comes to space tourism-a future in low-Earth orbit (LEO). NASA itself is investing in that future through the Commercial LEO Development Program, through which it is funding the development of private space stations. As NASA and its international partners move toward retiring the ISS in the next decade or so, the agency hopes to rent facilities from private stations that will be able to host not only its professional astronauts but also commercial visitors.

Four projects have received funding from NASA's Commercial LEO Development Program, including Axiom Space, the company that launched the Ax-1 mission. Axiom has partnered with avant-garde interior designer Philippe Starck to work on its Axiom Station. Another funded project, Starlab by Voyager Space and its subsidiary Nanoracks, has partnered with Hilton to develop astronaut accommodations.

Three of the four companies are expecting to launch their space stations by the end of the decade, but as space programs go, delays are highly likely. (NASA's current Artemis program, for instance, was hoping to land humans on the moon in 2024, but that deadline has been pushed back to at least 2025.) Still, the future is bright for space tourism and certainly within the realm of reality-all we have to do is wait. And for travelers who have always wished to be among the stars, that wait will be worth it.

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The Past, Present, and Future of Space Tourism

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When Austrian journalist Gerhard Pistor requested to book a trip to the moon in 1964, his travel agency forwarded his query to Pan American World Airways-Pan Am. The now-defunct airline accepted the reservation and noted that the first flights to the moon would take off in the year 2000.

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Virgin Galactic is launching a new space age, where all are invited along for the ride.

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Will space be an exotic retreat reserved for only the wealthy? Or will middle-class folks have a chance to take their families to space? Make no mistake about it, going to space will be the most expensive vacation you ever take. Prices right now are in the tens of millions of dollars. Currently, the only vehicles that can take you into space are the space shuttle and the Russian Soyuz, both of which are terribly inefficient. Each spacecraft requires millions of pounds of propellant to take off into space, which makes them expensive to launch. One pound of payload costs about $10,000 to put into Earth orbit.

NASA and Lockheed Martin worked on a single-stage-to-orbit launch space plane, called the VentureStar, that supposedly would've been launched for about a tenth of what the space shuttle costs to launch. However, the program was canceled in late 2001 after a prototype suffered problems during testing as well as scheduling issues and cost overruns. Perhaps NASA's latest spacecraft project, the Orion Crew Exploration Vehicle, will replace the shuttle as a means to transport tourists to space. Check out How the Orion CEV Will Work to learn more.

In 1998, a joint report from NASA and the Space Transportation Association stated that improvements in technology could push fares for space travel as low as $50,000, and possibly down to $20,000 or $10,000 a decade later. The report concluded that at a ticket price of $50,000, there could be 500,000 passengers flying into space each year. While still omitting many people, these prices would open up space to a tremendous amount of traffic.

If you don't want to wait for space hotels and cruise ships, Space Adventures offers passengers an array of options, such as:

Zero-gravity flight program

MiG-25 Edge of space program

MiG-21 High-G flight program

Spacewalk adventure program

Although most of these programs also include a two- or three-night stay in Moscow, prices start at close to $10,000 and go higher. Still too much money for your budget? Some, including Apollo 11 astronaut and ShareSpace Foundation chairman Buzz Aldrin, have proposed a space-trip lottery system to give everyone a chance to go.

Since the beginning of the space race, the general public has said, "Isn't that great -- when do I get to go?" Well, our chance might be closer than ever. Within the next 20 years, space planes could be taking off for the Moon at the same frequency as airplanes flying between New York and Los Angeles.

For more information on space tourism and related topics, check out the links on the next page.

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On September 18, 2006, Anousheh Ansari, a telecommunications entrepreneur, became the first female space tourist and the fourth space tourist overall. Could you be next? Find out what's in the works to get you to space.

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We explore the growing world of commercial space travel and consider whether the benefits outweigh the drawbacks of making space a tourist destination. By Rhiannon Wardle
While space tourism isn't brand new, the race to progress commercial space travel has moved along vastly in the past year. With NASA - once the centre of the space industry - taking its time to bring commercial space flight into the realm of possibility, the doors have opened up for wealthy individuals to try their hand at space travel.

Space tourism is not without criticism, despite being an exciting idea in theory. Today, we'll explore the advantages and disadvantages of space tourism, raise questions about the billionaire space race, and think about whether space tourism is the beginning of a new future or an environmental catastrophe.

What is space tourism?

You may be wondering, what exactly is space tourism, as opposed to regular space travel? The main difference is, space tourism is human space travel for recreational or leisure purposes. So the fundamental purpose is for human pleasure, as all tourism is . We can divide space tourism into orbital, suborbital and lunar space tourism .

While orbital space tourism involves extremely high speeds (17,400 mph), as it allows a rocket to orbit around Earth, suborbital flights are a lot slower (though still 3,700mph) and tend to fly directly up into space and then back down again. Suborbital flights are what space tourism companies are offering more commonly. Lunar space tourism involves trips to the moon.

The world's first tourist in space

So when exactly did space tourism begin? On April 30th, 2001, US millionaire Dennis Tito travelled to the International Space Station (ISS) on a Russian Soyuz rocket. He spent 20 million dollars to bring his dream to light, which mirrors the current state of space tourism - the very richest people in the world are at the forefront.

Between 2001 and 2009, Russian Soyuz rockets transported seven more space tourists to the International Space Station as part of Space Adventures, with each ticket costing a similar 20-25 million US dollars. However, in 2010, Russia halted orbital space tourism due to an increasing number of ISS members needing seats on the spacecraft. This was the last we saw of space tourism until 2021.

Does commercial space travel exist today?

The short answer to this question is yes. However, currently, commercial space travel is extremely exclusive, and this shows no signs of changing in the near future. July 2021 was a pioneering month, with both Virgin Galactic and Blue Origin successfully launching suborbital spaceflights with tourist passengers from their spaceports.

Below, we'll go into more detail about the three companies hoping to make waves with commercial space travel in the next few years. Eventually, each of these companies wants to provide regular space travel opportunities to private paying customers.

Virgin Galactic

Their website is simple with an aspirational message. If you click on the heading "Why we go", you see a quote from Branson: "I really hope that there will be millions of kids all over the world who will be captivated and inspired about the possibility of them going to space one day."

The website also outlines that Virgin Galactic's mission is to "open space to everybody" and says, "until now, ordinary citizens haven't had the opportunity to experience space for themselves". However, the question remains - do billionaires count as ordinary citizens when there are less than 3,000 of them in the entire world?

Blue Origin

The space flight reached two new world records by having the oldest and youngest humans to have ever been to space onboard. One of them, an 18-year-old student, was Blue Origin's first paying customer, though the price of a ticket has not been revealed.

The website is similar in some ways to Virgin Galactic's, emphasising a better future for our children and the possibility of millions of people in space. However, there is slightly more focus on Earth preservation, with Blue Origin mentioning the need to find new energy and material resources outside of Earth. There is also a focus on the reusable nature of launch vehicles as an attempt to improve cost and sustainability.

Space X

However, it's worth noting that Space X is more focused on longer orbital flights, which are more difficult to carry out. In fact, Space X launched the first-ever orbital flight crewed entirely by tourists from the Kennedy Space Centre on September 15th 2021.

While one crew member, Jared Isaacman, was a billionaire and funded the trip himself, the other crew members were ordinary citizens, including a community college professor and a physician assistant. To put money matters into perspective, the flight probably cost Isaacman a minimum of 200 million US dollars. However, the mission raised $210 million for St Jude's Children's Research Hospital in the process.

Advantages of space tourism

Now you have a better understanding of space tourism in today's climate, let's delve deeper into the good and bad consequences. We'll start off with the advantages of space tourism and discuss why it's such an exciting prospect for so many.

A new perspective on the world

Right now, the biggest draw for commercial space passengers is the awe-inspiring experience, a new perspective of Earth, and the most beautiful view humans have ever seen. Most people grow up believing that they will never go to space, and the fact that going can become a reality for some is a huge achievement.

Another big perk of space travel for passengers is the experience of microgravity, where they will be able to feel weightless on the spacecraft for a few minutes. This may not change their perspective on Earth, but it'll certainly give a feeling of euphoria.

Scientific research

There are a few scientific benefits of space tourism, though the most recent flights were perhaps not long enough to offer too much insight. When, in the future, we see longer space flights, we'll have the opportunity to study long-term physiological changes in humans as a result of being in space.

There are also chances to carry out small-scale experiments on these touristic flights. For example, on the recent Virgin Galactic flight, plants were taken on board to see how they would react to microgravity.

A potential future on a moon or Mars colony

One of the end goals of space tourism is to prepare for the creation of a colony on the moon or Mars for research purposes or even as a kind of backup plan for if Earth goes up in flames. While a lot of this research and preparation will need to be done by scientists and astronauts, it's true that for this to happen, more ordinary people will need to be able to visit space. In this way, space tourism could be a great starting point.

Disadvantages of space tourism

Of course, it's not all exciting news. There are some pretty huge disadvantages of space tourism that we're going to look at in more detail. It can be easy to ignore the negatives when we're talking about something that's as pioneering and unique as space travel, but it's essential that we have a well-rounded conversation about it.

Space tourism cost and inaccessibility

We've already mentioned how wildly expensive tickets are for spacecraft passengers. At the moment, tickets cost between $200,000-$250,000 for Virgin Galactic flights, and while ticket prices haven't been released by Blue Origin or Space X, we have some indications.

Blue Origin sold one seat on their spaceflight for $28 million as part of a charity auction, demonstrating that the super-wealthy have exclusive access to the opportunity of being a pioneer. Regarding Space X, an early 2022 mission with Axiom will see a crew of 4 go to the ISS and stay for 8 days carrying out 25 science experiments. The cost? A cool 55 million per ticket. Although they'll be carrying out research, three of the passengers are investors, while only one is a former NASA astronaut.

What's more, names and faces in the history books won't be of the scientists, professors and experts who poured their life and soul into understanding the cosmos, but instead of billionaires who paid their way in.

We can't be surprised about this, though, when we consider that billionaire businessmen have taken over space agencies like NASA in the bid for regular commercial space travel.

Besides it being unfair that the wealthy are given access to space travel above all others, there are other problems with the cost of space tourism. So many justifications for space tourism talk about the future of humanity and protecting the planet - but why then can't these billionaires pour some of their dollars into solving the climate crisis, world hunger, and general inequality?

To many, it appears that the billionaire owners of space companies are more interested in "winning" the space race and gaining monopoly over space than protecting the planet we currently live on.

Who is in charge?

This brings us to the next point. We are no longer in control of our future destiny among the stars. Instead, we have to rely on the whims and monetary power of three men, all of whom may not want the same things as us.

As Deepak Xavier, Oxfam's previous International global head of Inequality said, "We've now reached stratospheric inequality. Billionaires burning into space, away from a world of pandemic, climate change and starvation... This is human folly, not human achievement".

One could argue, did we ever have control over our future in space? Are billionaires really that different to members of governments making decisions about our future? While, in some ways, we were always relatively powerless against governments making decisions about spending public money and future innovations, at least the power rested in the hands of a larger and more diverse group of people. Now, everything comes down to just a few men.

Safety concerns

As you can imagine, there are some definite safety concerns when it comes to space travel and tourism. The industry does experience catastrophic failures from time to time, including one Virgin Galactic flight test resulting in the death of co-pilot Mike Alsbury in 2014.

There are several very dangerous parts of a space flight - the two most risky parts being the rocket launch and re-entering Earth's atmosphere on the descent. While difficulties can arise due to faulty machinery, we also have to consider the possibility of human error and sheer bad luck.

Additionally, there are safety concerns about being in space for prolonged periods of time too, and this needs to be addressed when discussing the possibility of citizens regularly entering space. Space radiation can cause terminal illness and behavioural changes, isolation can cause mental health issues, and gravity can cause muscle and bone weakness - just for a few examples.

The environmental cost to the planet

Finally, it's time to discuss the huge environmental cost of space tourism. This is one of the biggest concerns that people have about the prospect of regular commercial space travel, and rightly so. Below we discuss some of the biggest environmental concerns.

Large carbon footprint

Depleting ozone layer

A depleted ozone layer basically means that greenhouse gases can heat up the Earth more easily, and this causes global warming. To improve your understanding of this process, you can check out our greenhouse gases blog post , and to consider the end result, you can read our climate change guide .

Polluted stratosphere

Final thoughts - Is it worth it?

It seems as though the current plans that the billionaire space company owners have for space tourism are perhaps too ambitious, and focus on the wrong things. It's true that space exploration and research could bring a wealth of new ideas and resources to Earth, and could provide a future existence for humans.

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Is space tourism good for the planet? - FutureLearn

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As space tourism starts to take off more than ever before, we investigate the pros and cons of commercial space travel.

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The environmental impact of a SpaceX launch (2018)

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The environmental impact of a SpaceX launch (2018)

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What is the environmental impact of the SpaceX Falcon Heavy launch? | BBC Science Focus Magazine

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From damaging the environment to contaminating the solar system, Space X’s successful launch of the Falcon Heavy rocket also poses risks.

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Lift-off is usually the most environmentally harmful stage of any space mission, with vast quantities of fuel burnt up in a matter of minutes. For instance, SpaceX's Falcon 9 gets through 112 tonnes of refined kerosene, emitting about 336 tonnes of CO2 (the equivalent produced by your average car driving almost 70 times around the world).

As well as greenhouse gases, rocket engines emit chlorine and particles of soot and aluminium oxide that destroy ozone. These issues are growing more pressing with the advent of commercial spaceflight. There were 114 space launches in 2020, but there may be up to 1,000 per year in future.

Sustainable fuels are the top priority to enable greener space travel. Current spacecraft use a variety of fuels, but most are based on fossil fuels. One potentially greener option is liquid hydrogen and oxygen, used by the New Shepard Propulsion Module from private spaceflight company Blue Origin. Hydrogen can be obtained sustainably by using solar power to break water down into oxygen and hydrogen molecules.

In 2019, NASA's Green Propellant Infusion Mission (GPIM) road-tested AF-M315E, a green alternative to hydrazine (a toxic component of many types of rocket fuel) and hopes to use this to power future missions.

Reusable rockets can cut down on some of the waste associated with spaceflight. Traditionally, boosters, fuel tanks and other components are treated as expendable. But guiding them back to Earth in a controlled manner opens new possibilities - most components from the Falcon 9 can be reused up to 100 times.

Truly environmentally friendly space travel is still some way off. But we already have many of the technologies needed to start limiting its impact on our planet.
Read more:
Every week on BBC World Service, CrowdScience answers listeners' questions on life, Earth and the Universe. Tune in every Friday evening on BBC World Service, or catch up online at bbcworldservice.com/crowdscience

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Can space exploration be environmentally friendly?

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Lift-off is usually the most environmentally harmful stage of any space mission, with vast quantities of fuel burnt up in a matter of minutes. For instance, SpaceX's Falcon 9 gets through 112 tonnes of refined kerosene, emitting about 336 tonnes of CO2 (the equivalent produced by your average car driving almost 70 times around the world).

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Commercial Space Flight is Transforming Exploration

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Commercial Space Flight is Transforming Exploration

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How Commercial Spaceflight Is Transforming Exploration

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Investors are pouring billions of dollars into private space companies like SpaceX and Blue Origin. Here’s what could come out of those efforts.

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SpaceX just launched humans to space for the first time

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How Jeff Bezos and Richard Branson’s Space Flights Will Differ | WSJ

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Jeff Bezos interview after Blue Origin first flight

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Jeff Bezos interview after Blue Origin first flight

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Jeff Bezos Responds To Critics After Historic Trip Into Space

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See Jeff Bezos Launch Into Space With Blue Origin Crew

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Virgin Galactic Unity first flight promo

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Virgin Galactic Unity first flight promo

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Highlights From Richard Branson’s Virgin Galactic Flight Into Space.

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Learn the latest news about space tourism and space tourist trips into outer space. SPACE.com looks at the growing business of space tourism.

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Soyuz MS-20 crew on the International Space Station, from left to right: Yusaku Maezawa (Spaceflight Participant), Alexander Misurkin (cosmonaut), and Yozo Hirano (Spaceflight Participant).

Space tourism is human space travel for recreational purposes. There are several different types of space tourism, including orbital, suborbital and lunar space tourism. Tourists are motivated by the possibility of viewing Earth from space, feeling weightlessness, experiencing extremely high speed, and contributing to science.

Space tourism started in April 2001, when American businessman and engineer Dennis Tito became the first ever space tourist to travel to space aboard a Soyuz-TM32 spacecraft. During the period from 2001 to 2009, seven space tourists made eight space flights aboard a Russian Soyuz spacecraft to the International Space Station, brokered by American company Space Adventures in conjunction with Roscosmos and RSC Energia. Iranian-American businesswoman Anousheh Ansari became the first ever female space tourist in September 2006. The publicized price was in the range of 20-25 million USD per trip. Some space tourists have signed contracts with third parties to conduct certain research activities while in orbit. By 2007, space tourism was thought to be one of the earliest markets that would emerge for commercial spaceflight.

Space tourists need to be in good physical form before going to space. In particular, they have to train for fast acceleration or g-forces in a centrifuge and weightlessness by flying in a high-altitude jet plane doing parabolic arcs. They may have to learn how to operate and even fix parts of the spaceship using simulators.

Russia halted orbital space tourism in 2010 due to the increase in the International Space Station crew size, using the seats for expedition crews that would previously have been sold to paying spaceflight participants. Orbital tourist flights were set to resume in 2015 but the planned flight was postponed indefinitely. Russian orbital tourism eventually resumed with the launch of Soyuz MS-20 in 2021.

On June 7, 2019, NASA announced that starting in 2020, the organization aims to start allowing private astronauts to go on the International Space Station, with the use of the SpaceX Crew Dragon spacecraft and the Boeing Starliner spacecraft for public astronauts, which is planned to be priced at 35,000 USD per day for one astronaut, and an estimated 50 million for the ride there and back.

Work also continues towards developing suborbital space tourism vehicles. This is being done by aerospace companies like Blue Origin and Virgin Galactic. SpaceX announced in 2018 that they are planning on sending space tourists, including Yusaku Maezawa, on a free-return trajectory around the Moon on the Starship, however the project was cancelled on June 1, 2024.

The Soviet space program was successful in broadening the pool of cosmonauts. The Soviet Intercosmos program included cosmonauts selected from Warsaw Pact member countries ( Czechoslovakia, Poland, East Germany, Bulgaria, Hungary, Romania) and later from allies of the USSR (Cuba, Mongolia, Vietnam) and non-aligned countries (India, Syria, Afghanistan). Most of these cosmonauts received full training for their missions and were treated as equals, but were generally given shorter flights than Soviet cosmonauts. The European Space Agency (ESA) also took advantage of the program.[citation needed ]

The US Space Shuttle program included payload specialist 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 the ESA and Byron Lichtenberg from MIT (engineer and Air Force fighter pilot) were the first payload specialists to fly on the Space Shuttle, on mission STS-9.

In 1984, Charles D. Walker became the first non-government astronaut to fly, with his employer McDonnell Douglas paying US$40,000 (equivalent to $123,959 in 2025) for his flight. During the 1970s, Shuttle prime contractor Rockwell International studied a $200-300 million removable cabin that could fit into the Shuttle's cargo bay. The cabin could carry up to 74 passengers into orbit for up to three days. Space Habitation Design Associates proposed, in 1983, a cabin for 72 passengers in the bay. Passengers were located in six sections, each with windows and its own loading ramp, and with seats in different configurations for launch and landing. Another proposal was based on the Spacelab habitation modules, which provided 32 seats in the payload bay in addition to those in the cockpit area. A 1985 presentation to the National Space Society stated that, although flying tourists in the cabin would cost $1 million to $1.5 million per passenger without government subsidy, within 15 years, 30,000 people a year would pay US$25,000 (equivalent to $74,838 in 2025) each to fly in space on new spacecraft. The presentation also forecast flights to lunar orbit within 30 years and visits to the lunar surface within 50 years.

As the shuttle program expanded in the early 1980s, NASA began a Space Flight Participant program to allow citizens without scientific or governmental roles to fly. Christa McAuliffe was chosen as the first Teacher in Space in July 1985 from 11,400 applicants. 1,700 applied for the Journalist in Space program. An Artist in Space program was considered, and NASA expected that after McAuliffe's flight two to three civilians a year would fly on the shuttle. After McAuliffe was killed in the Challenger disaster in January 1986, the programs were cancelled. McAuliffe's backup, Barbara Morgan, eventually got hired in 1998 as a professional astronaut and flew on STS-118 as a mission specialist. 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 cancelled in the wake of the Columbia disaster on STS-107 and subsequent emphasis on finishing the International Space Station before retiring the Space Shuttle.[citation needed ]

Initially, senior figures at NASA strongly opposed space tourism on principle; from the beginning of the ISS expeditions, NASA stated it was not interested in accommodating paying guests. The Subcommittee on Space and Aeronautics Committee on Science of the House of Representatives held in June 2001 revealed the shifting attitude of NASA towards paying space tourists wanting to travel to the ISS in its statement on the hearing's purpose:

"Review the issues and opportunities for flying nonprofessional astronauts in space, the appropriate government role for supporting the nascent space tourism industry, use of the Shuttle and Space Station for Tourism, safety and training criteria for space tourists, and the potential commercial market for space tourism."

The subcommittee report was interested in evaluating Dennis Tito's extensive training and his experience in space as a nonprofessional astronaut.[citation needed ]

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. Toyohiro Akiyama was flown in 1990 to with the eighth crew and returned a week later with the seventh crew. Cost estimates vary from $10 million up to $37 million. Akiyama gave a daily TV broadcast from orbit and also performed scientific experiments for Russian and Japanese companies.

In 1991, British chemist Helen Sharman was selected from a pool of 13,000 applicants to be the first Briton in space. 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.

In April 1999, the Russian space agency announced that 51-year-old British billionaire Peter Llewellyn would be sent to the aging Mir space station in return for a payment of $100 million by Llewellyn. Llewellyn, however, denied agreeing to pay that sum, his refusal to pay which prompted his flight's cancellation a month later.

Scaled Composites won the $10 million X Prize in October 2004 with SpaceShipOne, as the first private company to reach and surpass an altitude of 100 km (62 mi) twice within two weeks. The altitude is beyond the Kármán Line, the arbitrarily defined boundary of space. The first flight was flown by Michael Melvill in June 2004, to a height of 100 km (62 mi), making him the first commercial astronaut. The prize-winning flight was flown by Brian Binnie, which reached a height of 112.0 km (69.6 mi), breaking the X-15 record. There were no space tourists on the flights even though the vehicle has seats for three passengers. Instead there was additional weight to make up for the weight of passengers.

In 2005, Virgin Galactic was founded as a joint venture between Scaled Composites and Richard Branson's Virgin Group. Eventually Virgin Group owned the entire project. Virgin Galactic began building SpaceShipTwo-class spaceplanes. The first of these spaceplanes, VSS Enterprise, was intended to commence its first commercial flights in 2015, and tickets were on sale at a price of $200,000 (later raised to $250,000). However, the company suffered a considerable setback when the Enterprise broke up over the Mojave Desert during a test flight in October 2014. Over 700 tickets had been sold prior to the accident. A second spaceplane, VSS Unity, completed a successful test flight with four passengers on July 11, 2021, to an altitude of nearly 90 km (56 mi). Galactic 01 became the company's first commercial spaceflight on June 29, 2023.

Blue Origin developed the New Shepard reusable suborbital launch system specifically to enable short-duration space tourism. Blue Origin plans to ferry a maximum of six persons on a brief journey to space on board the New Shepard. The capsule is attached to the top portion of an 18-meter (59-foot) rocket. The rocket successfully launched with four passengers on July 20, 2021, and reached an altitude of 107 km (66 mi). Blue Origin's 10th human flight lifted off on the morning of February 25, 2025. Six paying passengers, including a Spanish TV host, and several investors, experienced weightlessness during the 10-12-minute flight and can see Earth against the blackness of space.

Armadillo Aerospace was developing a two-seat vertical takeoff and landing (VTOL) rocket called Hyperion, which will be marketed by Space Adventures. Hyperion uses a capsule similar in shape to the Gemini capsule. The vehicle will use a parachute for descent but will probably use retrorockets for final touchdown, according to remarks made by Armadillo Aerospace at the Next Generation Suborbital Researchers Conference in February 2012. The assets of Armadillo Aerospace were sold to Exos Aerospace and while SARGE is continuing to be developed, it is unclear whether Hyperion is still being developed.

XCOR Aerospace was developing a suborbital vehicle called Lynx until development was halted in May 2016. The Lynx would take off from a runway under rocket power. Unlike SpaceShipOne and SpaceShipTwo, Lynx would not require a mothership. Lynx was designed for rapid turnaround, which would enable it to fly up to four times per day. Because of this rapid flight rate, Lynx had fewer seats than SpaceShipTwo, carrying only one pilot and one spaceflight participant on each flight. XCOR expected to roll out the first Lynx prototype and begin flight tests in 2015, but as of late 2017, XCOR was unable to complete their prototype development and filed for bankruptcy.

Citizens in Space, formerly the Teacher in Space Project, is a project of the United States Rocket Academy. Citizens in Space combines citizen science with citizen space exploration. The goal is to fly citizen-science experiments and citizen explorers (who travel free) who will act as payload operators on suborbital space missions. By 2012, Citizens in Space had acquired a contract for 10 suborbital flights with XCOR Aerospace and expected to acquire additional flights from XCOR and other suborbital spaceflight providers in the future. In 2012, Citizens in Space reported they had begun training three citizen astronaut candidates and would select seven additional candidates over the next 12 to 14 months.[needs update ]

Space Expedition Corporation was preparing to use the Lynx for "Space Expedition Curaçao", a commercial flight from Hato Airport on Curaçao, and planned to start commercial flights in 2014. The costs were $95,000 each.

Axe Apollo Space Academy promotion by Unilever which planned to provide 23 people suborbital spaceflights on board the Lynx.

EADS Astrium, a subsidiary of European aerospace giant EADS, announced its space tourism project in June 2007.

As of 2021, Space Adventures and SpaceX are the only companies to have coordinated tourism flights to Earth's orbit. Virginia-based Space Adventures has worked with Russia to use its Soyuz spacecraft to fly ultra-wealthy individuals to the International Space Station. The tourists included entrepreneur and space investor Anousheh Ansari and Cirque du Soleil co-founder Guy Laliberté. Those missions were priced at around $20 million each. The space industry could soon be headed for a tourism revolution if SpaceX and Boeing make good on their plans to take tourists to orbit.

The first space tourist, Dennis Tito (left) aboard the ISS

Space tourist Mark Shuttleworth

At the end of the 1990s, MirCorp, a private venture that was 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 was made to de-orbit Mir, Tito managed to switch his trip to the International Space Station (ISS) aboard a Russian Soyuz spacecraft through a deal between MirCorp and US-based Space Adventures, Ltd. Dennis Tito visited the ISS for seven days in April-May 2001, becoming the world's first "fee-paying" space tourist. Tito paid a reported $20 million for his trip.

Tito was followed in April 2002 by South African Mark Shuttleworth ( Soyuz TM-34). In February 2003, the Space Shuttle Columbia disintegrated on re-entry into the Earth's atmosphere, killing all seven astronauts aboard. After this disaster, space tourism on the Russian Soyuz program was temporarily put on hold, because Soyuz vehicles became the only available transport to the ISS. After the Shuttle's return to service in July 2005, space tourism was resumed. The third was Gregory Olsen in October 2005 ( Soyuz TMA-7). In September 2006, an Iranian American businesswoman named Anousheh Ansari became the fourth space tourist ( Soyuz TMA-9).) In April 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 2009. British-American Richard Garriott became the next space tourist in October 2008 aboard Soyuz TMA-13. Canadian Guy Laliberté visited the ISS in September 2009 aboard Soyuz TMA-16, becoming the last visiting tourist until Japanese nationals Yusaku Maezawa and Yozo Hirano aboard Soyuz MS-20 in December 2021. Originally the third member aboard Soyuz TMA-18M would have been the British singer Sarah Brightman as a space tourist, but on May 13, 2015, she announced she had withdrawn from training.

Since the Space Shuttle was retired in 2011, Soyuz once again became the only means of accessing the ISS, and so tourism was once again put on hold. On June 7, 2019, NASA announced a plan to open the ISS to space tourism again.

On September 16, 2021, the Inspiration4 mission launched from the Kennedy Space Center on a SpaceX Falcon 9 and spent almost three days in orbit aboard the Crew Dragon Resilience, becoming the first all-civilian crew to fly an orbital space mission.

On September 12, 2024, Jared Isaacman and Sarah Gillis performed the first commercial spacewalk during the Polaris Dawn spaceflight operated by SpaceX.

On April 1, 2025, Fram2 became the first crewed spaceflight to enter a polar retrograde orbit, launched on a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket.

Axiom Space uses Crew Dragon flights contracted with SpaceX to send crews to the International Space Station. Mission 1 flew in April 2022, Mission 2 in May 2023, Mission 3 in January 2024, and Mission 4 in June 2025. Through these missions, NASA hopes to create a non-NASA market for human spaceflight to enable cost-sharing on future commercial space stations.

The Boeing Starliner capsule is being developed as part of the NASA's Commercial Crew Program. Part of the agreement with NASA allows Boeing to sell seats for space tourists. Boeing proposed including one seat per flight for a spaceflight participant at a price that would be competitive with what Roscosmos charges tourists.

The Polaris Program: The commander and financier of the Inspiration4 mission, Jared Isaacman, announced plans for a three-mission program called Polaris in February 2022. The first mission, Polaris Dawn, launched four private astronauts in a Crew Dragon spacecraft to earth orbit. Polaris Dawn was a free-flyer mission in which the spacecraft did not perform any rendezvous maneuvers, instead setting the all-time earth orbit altitude record at 1,400 km, surpassing the 1,373 km record set by Gemini XI. Polaris Dawn also included the first private extravehicular activity (EVA). The last Polaris program mission is planned to be the first crewed flight of the in-development Starship launch system.

In 2004, Bigelow Aerospace established a competition called America's Space Prize, which offered a $50 million prize to the first US company to create a reusable spacecraft capable of carrying passengers to a Nautilus space station. The prize expired in January 2010 without anyone making a serious effort to win it.

The Space Island Group proposed having 20,000 people on their "space island" by 2020.

A United States startup firm, Orion Span announced during the early part of 2018 that it planned to launch and position a luxury space hotel in orbit within several years. Aurora Space Station, the name of the hotel, would have offered guests (at most six individuals) 12 days of staying in a pill-shaped space hotel for $9.5 million. The hotel's cabins would have measured approximately 12.9 metres (43 feet) by 4.8 metres (14 feet) in width.

Space Adventures Crew Dragon mission: Space Adventures and SpaceX planned to send up to four tourists to low Earth orbit for a few days in late 2021 or early 2022. In October 2021, Space Adventures stated that the mission contract had expired, though the possibility of a future partnership with SpaceX was left open.

Galactic Suite Design

Orbital Technologies Commercial Space Station

Space Industries Incorporated

Space Islands

Artist conception of a Mars tourism poster, made by SpaceX

A mission with a similar flight profile is planned to have the same flight profile as the now cancelled Dearmoon project, with Dennis Tito and his wife Akiko Tito as two of the passengers.

Space Adventures Ltd. have announced that they are working on DSE-Alpha, a circumlunar mission to the Moon, with the price per passenger being $100,000,000.

Excalibur Almaz proposed to take three tourists in a flyby around the Moon, using modified Almaz space station modules, in a low-energy trajectory flyby around the Moon. The trip would last around 6 months. However, their equipment was never launched and is to be converted into an educational exhibit.

The Golden Spike Company was an American space transport startup active from 2010 to 2013. The company held the objective to offer private commercial space transportation services to the surface of the Moon. The company's website was quietly taken offline in September 2015.

The Inspiration Mars Foundation is an American nonprofit organization founded by Dennis Tito that proposed to launch a crewed mission to flyby Mars in January 2018, or 2021 if they missed the first deadline. Their website became defunct by late 2015 but it is archived by the Internet Archive. The Foundation's future plans are unclear.

Bigelow Aerospace planned to extend their successes with the Genesis modules by launching the B330, an expandable habitation module with 330 cubic meters of internal space, aboard a Vulcan rocket. The Vulcan was contracted to boost BA 330 to low lunar orbit by the end of 2022.

In February 2017, Elon Musk announced that substantial deposits from two individuals had been received by SpaceX for a Moon loop flight using a free return trajectory and that this could happen as soon as late 2018. Musk said that the cost of the mission would be "comparable" to that of sending an astronaut to the International Space Station, about US$70 million in 2017. In February 2018, Musk announced that the Falcon Heavy rocket would not be used for crewed missions. The proposal changed in 2018 to use the Starship launch system instead. In September 2018, Musk revealed the passenger for the trip, Yusaku Maezawa during a livestream. Yusaku Maezawa described the plan for his trip in further detail, dubbed the #dearMoon project, intended to take 6-8 artists with him on the journey to inspire the artists to create new art.

In December 2005, the US government released a set of proposed rules for space tourism. The proposed rules required informed consent and emergency-response training for space flight participants; physical examinations were recommended but not required unless a clear public-safety need was identified.

In 1984, the U.S. Congress passed the Commercial Space Launch Act, which, among other things, encourages space commercialization ( 51 U.S.C. § 20102(c)).

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. This is in accordance with the Commercial Space Launch Amendments Act passed by Congress in 2004, which required that NASA and the Federal Aviation Administration to allow paying passengers fly on suborbital launch vehicles at their own risk.

In March 2010, the New Mexico legislature passed the Spaceflight Informed Consent Act. The SICA gives legal protection to companies who provide private space flights in the case of accidental harm or death to individuals. Participants sign an Informed Consent waiver, dictating that spaceflight operators cannot be held liable in the "death of a participant resulting from the inherent risks of space flight activities". Operators are however not covered in the case of gross negligence or willful misconduct.

In December 2021, the FAA announced that starting in 2022, it would recognize on its official website those who travel to space. "Any individual who is on an FAA-licensed or permitted launch and reaches 50 statute miles above the surface of the Earth will be listed on the site." The announcement ended the Commercial Space Astronaut Wings program, under which the FAA had offered commercial astronaut wings to individuals on private spacecraft who made it above 50 miles (80 kilometers) in altitude above Earth since 2004.

With the increasing advent of sub-orbital flights, there are growing concerns that the present international framework is insufficient to address the significant issues raised by space tourism. The concerns relate to commercial Liability, insurance, consumer protection, passenger safety, environmental impact, and emergency response.

The following list notes each trip taken by an individual for whom a fee was paid (by themselves or another party) to go above the Kármán Line, the internationally recognized boundary of space at 100 km, or above the US definition of the boundary of space at 50 miles (80 km). It also includes future trips which are paid for and scheduled.

Criticism of the term space tourist

Many private space travelers have objected to the term space tourist, often pointing out that their role went beyond that of an observer, since they also carried out scientific experiments in the course of their journey. Richard Garriott additionally emphasized that his training was identical to the requirements of non-Russian Soyuz crew members, and that teachers and other non-professional astronauts chosen to fly with NASA are called astronauts. He has said that if the distinction has to be made, he would rather be called "private astronaut" than "tourist". Mark Shuttleworth described himself as a "pioneer of commercial space travel". Gregory Olsen prefers "private researcher", and Anousheh Ansari prefers the term "private space explorer". Other advocates of private spaceflight object to the term on similar grounds. 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." Russian cosmonaut Maksim Surayev told the press in 2009 not to describe Guy Laliberté as a tourist: "It's become fashionable to speak of space tourists. He is not a tourist but a participant in the mission."

" Spaceflight participant" is the official term used by NASA and the Russian Federal Space Agency to distinguish between private space travelers and career astronauts. Tito, Shuttleworth, Olsen, Ansari, and Simonyi were designated as such during their respective space flights. NASA also lists Christa McAuliffe as a spaceflight participant (although she did not pay a fee), apparently due to her non-technical duties aboard the STS-51-L flight.

The US Federal Aviation Administration awards the title of " commercial astronaut" to trained crew members of privately funded spacecraft.

A 2018 survey from the PEW Research Center identifies the top three motivations for a customer to purchase a flight into space as:

To experience something unique ( e.g. pioneering, one of a kind)

To see the view of Earth from space

To learn more about the world

A web-based survey suggested that over 70% of those surveyed wanted less than or equal to two weeks in space; in addition, 88% wanted to spacewalk, of whom 14% would pay a 50% premium for the experience, and 21% wanted a hotel or space station.

The concept has met with some criticism; Günter Verheugen, vice-president of the European Commission, said of the EADS Astrium Space Tourism Project: "It's only for the super-rich, which is against my social convictions".

On October 14, 2021, Prince William suggested that entrepreneurs should focus on saving Earth rather than engaging in space tourism and also warned about a rise in " climate anxiety" among younger generations.

Influence of a decade of contemporary rocket launch and re-entry heating emissions on stratospheric chemical composition

A 2010 study published in Geophysical Research Letters raised concerns that the growing commercial spaceflight industry could accelerate global warming. The study, funded by NASA and The Aerospace Corporation, simulated the impact of 1,000 suborbital launches of hybrid rockets from a single location, calculating that this would release a total of 600 tonnes of black carbon into the stratosphere. They found that the resultant layer of soot particles remained relatively localized, with only 20% of the carbon straying into the southern hemisphere, thus creating a strong hemispherical asymmetry. This unbalance would cause the temperature to decrease by about 0.4 °C (0.72 °F) in the tropics and subtropics, whereas the temperature at the poles would increase by between 0.2 and 1 °C (0.36 and 1.80 °F). The ozone layer would also be affected, with the tropics losing up to 1.7% of ozone cover, and the polar regions gaining 5-6%. The researchers stressed that these results should not be taken as "a precise forecast of the climate response to a specific launch rate of a specific rocket type", but as a demonstration of the sensitivity of the atmosphere to the large-scale disruption that commercial space tourism could bring.

A 2022 study estimated the air pollution impacts on climate change and the ozone layer from rocket launches and re-entry of reusable components and debris in 2019 and from a theoretical future space industry extrapolated from the " billionaire space race". It concludes that substantial effects from routine space tourism should "motivate regulation".

Several organizations have been formed to promote the space tourism industry, including the Space Tourism Society, Space Future, and HobbySpace. 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.

Classes in space tourism have been taught at the Rochester Institute of Technology in New York, and Keio University in Japan. Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University in Florida launched a worldwide space tourism course in 2017.

A 2010 report from the Federal Aviation Administration, titled "The Economic Impact of Commercial Space Transportation on the U.S. Economy in 2009", cites studies done by Futron, an aerospace and technology-consulting firm, which predict that space tourism could become a billion-dollar market within 20 years. Eight tourists reached orbit between 2001 and 2009. In 2011 Space Adventures suggested that this number could reach 140 by 2020, but with commercial crewed rockets only just beginning to enter service, such numbers have yet to be achieved.

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# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Space tourism is human space travel for recreational purposes. There are several different types of space tourism, including orbital, suborbital and lunar space tourism. Tourists are motivated by the possibility of viewing Earth from space, feeling weightlessness, experiencing extremely high speed, and contributing to science.