Last Updated: June 2025 (Space Tourism)
Table of Contents
Space Tourism
This article deals with ‘Space Tourism‘. This is part of our series on ‘Science and Technology, which is an important pillar of the GS-3 syllabus. For more articles, you can click here.
What is Space Tourism?
- Space Tourism is the commercial activity of sending private individuals, not just astronauts, into space for leisure, adventure, or research purposes. It’s like going on a unique trip, but instead of visiting a new city or country, you’re travelling beyond Earth.
- Space begins at an altitude of 100 km (62 miles) above Earth’s surface, known as the Kármán line. At this point, the atmosphere becomes too thin to provide sufficient lift for an aircraft to stay aloft. Beyond this altitude, an object must achieve orbital velocity to avoid falling back to Earth.
- The global space tourism market size is estimated at USD 851.4 million in 2023.
Important Development
- FRAM2 Polar Mission (2025): SpaceX’s Falcon 9 rocket took 4 commercial Astronauts to orbit Earth from Pole to Pole.
- Polaris Mission (2024): Billionaire Jared Isaacman conducted first Private Spacewalk. Mission was conducted by Polaris Mission.
Companies involved in Space Tourism
| Virgin Galactic | Public traded company founded by Richard Branson. |
| Blue Origin | Privately held company of Jeff Bezos. It has built Spacecraft named New Shepherd. |
| SpaceX | Privately held company of Elon Musk. |
| Other companies | XCOR Aerospace and Armadillo Aerospace |
Why is Interest in Space Tourism Growing?
- Decline in the Cost of Space Tourism: The cost of a space trip has dropped significantly, from $600,000 to $250,000. It is expected to decrease further to $2,000 per kilogram in the coming years.
- Technological Advancements: A major technological advancement is the development of suborbital reusable launch vehicles, which has made such projects feasible.
- International Interest in Space Tourism: Nation States are increasingly supporting private sector participation in space (which wasn’t the case earlier)
- Development of Space Accommodations: In June 2019, NASA announced plans to allow private citizens to fly to the ISS for short visits. Many private entities are also developing hotels in space for tourists’ stay, like Orion Span, which has announced a plan to build the world’s first luxury hotel in space named Aurora.
Issues with these developments
- Legal Ambiguity: No international space law has defined the term ‘space tourist’. Existing space treaties, such as the Outer Space Treaty and the Rescue Agreement, are only applicable to astronauts.
- Unclear Passenger Liability: International treaties and conventions are aimed at regulating the signatory states and are bereft of provisions to handle the liability of private entities in space.
- Ethical issues: Many health risks associated with space flight are still not well understood, and very little research has been done on medical consequences of such flights on the health of participants.
- Environmental Impact
- Rockets emit gaseous and solid pollutants directly into the upper atmosphere. Studies show rocket launches may lead to ozone layer depletion, especially above the Arctic.
- Debris from spacecraft re-entry also poses an environmental threat.