With the SpaceX IPO and NASA's success in lunar exploration, space tourism is drawing attention again, but an analysis found that the actual number of users has been only 140 over 25 years, showing it remains a market centered on the ultrarich.
This year marks 25 years since American entrepreneur Dennis Tito, the world's first space tourist, visited the International Space Station (ISS) at age 60. He had worked as an aerospace engineer at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) and founded the investment firm Wilshire Associates. In 2001, Tito visited the ISS aboard a Russian Soyuz spacecraft, paying about $20 million (30.9 billion won).
However, foreign media including the New York Times (NYT) and Forbes said the "popularization of space travel" touted by private space corporations has yet to become reality. That's because only about 140 people have traveled to space for tourism in the 25 years since Tito. Of these, 92 used Blue Origin's suborbital flights. Most only went up to the Kármán line, the boundary of the atmosphere, to experience a few minutes of microgravity.
Today's space tourism market is led by Richard Branson's Virgin Galactic, Elon Musk's SpaceX, and Jeff Bezos' Blue Origin. The most aggressive company is Virgin Galactic. It sells a suborbital flight product that lasts about 90 minutes and raised seat prices to $750,000 (1.158 billion won) starting this year. About 650 people are currently waiting to board. The company plans to build a system by 2027–2028 that can send 750 people into space annually.
By contrast, other companies are focusing more on building space infrastructure than on space tourism. Blue Origin announced in January this year that it would suspend its space tourism program for at least two years. Instead of tourism, the company is concentrating on developing the Blue Moon lunar lander and the next-generation heavy-lift launch vehicle New Glenn. However, development timelines also became uncertain after a New Glenn rocket exploded on the launchpad last month.
SpaceX likewise is focusing its capabilities on launching government and private satellites rather than tourism. SpaceX has conducted more than 660 launches so far, but most were for deploying Starlink satellites or missions for NASA and the U.S. Department of Defense. Flights carrying tourists amounted to only about a dozen in partnership with Axiom Space. SpaceX's orbital trip costs about $200 million (309 billion won) for four people, and Axiom Space's ISS stay program runs $55 million to $65 million (84.9 billion won to 100.2 billion won) per seat, making it burdensome for the general public.
Still, the space tourism market appears likely to grow over the long term. Citing a market research firm, the NYT projected that the global space tourism market would expand from about $1.6 billion (2.4684 trillion won) last year to $46.8 billion (72.203 trillion won) by 2034.
Rachel Fu, a professor in the Department of Tourism and Hospitality Management at the University of Florida, saw a variety of space tourism products emerging, including orbital hotels, space research facilities, and lunar exploration. Fu said, "The key question now is not whether we can go to space, but whether we can stay, operate, and thrive in space."