Ilida Alvarez has dreamed of traveling to space since she was a child. But she, who owns a legal mediation firm, is afraid of flying and is not a billionaire. These are two facts that, until a few weeks ago, she was sure would leave her fantasy as out of reach as the stars. She was wrong.
Recently Alvarez and her husband, Rafael Landestoy, booked a ticket in a pressurized capsule, with space for ten people and attached to a huge helium-filled balloon, which will float smoothly to an altitude of 100,000 feet while passengers drink champagne and recline. in ergonomic seats. The reservation cost $500; the flight itself will cost US$50,000 and should last between six and 12 hours.
“It looks like it was tailor-made for fearful people like me who don’t want to get on a rocket,” Alvarez said. Organized by a company called World View, its flight is scheduled to depart the Grand Canyon in 2024.
Less than a year after Jeff Bezos and Richard Branson kicked off the commercial space race, flying into the upper atmosphere just weeks apart, the global space tourism market is booming. Dozens of companies offer reservations on everything from zero-pressure balloon flights to astronaut training camps and simulated zero-gravity flights.
But wait a bit before putting on your spacesuit. Financial services firm UBS estimates that by 2030 the space travel market will be worth $3 billion, but the US Federal Aviation Administration has yet to approve most out-of-this-world travel, and the first space hotel has yet to begin be built. And while access and options are increasing — not to mention launch pads — space tourism is still astronomically too expensive for most people.
What counts as space travel?
The Kármán line, widely accepted as the aeronautical boundary of the earth’s atmosphere, is at an altitude of about 100 km. It is the currency used by the International Aeronautical Federation, which certifies and controls global astronautical records. But many organizations in the United States, including the FAA and NASA, define everything above 80 km altitude as space.
Much of the attention has been focused on a trio of rocket companies run by billionaires: Jeff Bezos’ Blue Origin, whose passengers included “Star Trek” actor William Shatner; Richard Branson’s Virgin Galactic, where a suborbital spaceflight starts at $450,000, and Elon Musk’s SpaceX, which in September launched a civil-only spaceflight with no professional astronauts on board. In 2021, Virgin Galactic’s maiden flight reached 85 km altitude, while Blue Origin passes the 100 km altitude mark. Both are surpassed by SpaceX, whose rockets reach much further into the cosmos, reaching altitudes of more than 190 km above Earth.
Balloons, like the one operated by World View, don’t reach that high. But even at their maximum altitude of 30km, operators say the balloons float high enough that passengers can see the curvature of the planet and have a chance to experience the overview effect — an intense shift in perspective that many astronauts say. , occurs when a person views the Earth from above.
How to get there?
Blue Origin and Virgin Galactic, both licensed by the FAA to offer commercial space travel, are open for ticket sales (Blue Origin has yet to say anything about their prices). Both companies already have hundreds or even thousands of earthlings on their waiting lists for a ride to the edge of space. SpaceX charges tens of millions of dollars for its longest-range flights and is building a new plant in Texas that is under FAA review.
Craig Curran is the owner of Rochester, New York, travel agency Deprez Travel and a space enthusiast; he has a reserved seat since 2011 on a Virgin Galactic flight. His agency has a special space travel division, Galactic Experiences by Deprez, through which Curran sells everything from rocket launch tickets to astronaut training.
He admits that it is relatively difficult to close sales in the space tourism area; the ones that do happen are mostly the result of peer-to-peer contacts. “You can imagine that people who spend $450,000 to go into space probably live in circles that aren’t quite the same as yours or mine,” he said.
Some of Curran’s most sought-after products include flights where a passenger can experience the same zero-gravity sensation that astronauts feel in space, where a person feels like their stomach is dropping. He arranges them for customers with specialized, chartered Boeing 727s that fly in parabolic arcs to mimic the feeling of being in space. Other operators, including Zero G, also offer the service, which costs around $8,200.
The number of tourist space launches completed can almost be counted on the fingers of one hand: Blue Origin has already made four and SpaceX has had two. Meanwhile, Virgin Galactic announced on Thursday that the launch of its commercial passenger service, previously scheduled for later this year, has been pushed back to early 2023. waiting lists signed up for training. AxiomSpace, which provides services to SpaceX, offers training in partnership with NASA at the Johnson Space Center in Houston. Virgin Galactic, which already operates a “customized Future Astronaut Readiness program” at its Spaceport America facility in New Mexico, is also partnering with NASA to create a training program for private astronauts.
“We’re going into space at 12 km/h, so it’s a very smooth ride. You’re not flying away from Earth in a rocket,” said Jane Poynter, co-founder and co-CEO of Space Perspective, which is preparing its own tourist space balloon, the Spaceship Neptune. If all goes according to plan, balloon trips are expected to start flying from Florida in 2024, at a cost of $125,000 per person. It’s just a fraction of the cost of tickets on Blue Origin and Virgin Galactic, but it’s still more than double the average annual salary for Americans.
Space Perspective and World View have not yet gained the necessary FAA approval to be able to operate flights.
unique implications
Whether your mode of transport is a capsule or a rocket, in late 2021 travel insurance company battleface launched a civilian space insurance plan, according to its CEO Sasha Gainullin in direct response to increased interest in space tourism and space infrastructure. same. Benefits include accidental death and permanent disability in space. The insurance is valid for space flights with operators such as SpaceX, Blue Origin and Virgin Galactic and also for flights in stratospheric balloons. Gainullin said the company has received several requests for information, but no one has so far taken out the insurance.
“Right now, people who are traveling into space have such high net worth that they probably don’t need insurance,” he said. “But I think very soon we will see some so-called ordinary passengers buy our insurance.”
Want to spend some time?
Space enthusiasts insist that in the future, people will not travel to space just to enjoy the ride. They will want to spend some time there. Orbital Assembly Corp., a manufacturing company whose goal is to colonize space, is building the first space hotels — two ring-shaped properties that will orbit Earth, called Pioneer Station and Voyager Station. Optimistically, the company projects a 2025 launch date for Pioneer Station, which will have a capacity of 28 guests. The Voyayer Station project, which will be larger and which the company says will open in 2027, includes cottages and suites, as well as a gym, restaurant and bar. Both offer the ultimate in luxury: simulated gravity. Axiom Space, the space infrastructure company, is building the world’s first private space station; plans include rooms designed by Philippe Starck for travelers to spend the night.
Translation by Clara Allain
