space tourism

Stratospheric ballooning company Space Perspective raises $7 million
Space Perspective, a startup planning to offer tourists trips to the edge of space in a high-altitude balloon, has raised $7 million in a seed round that will allow the company to test its technologies.

Virgin Galactic unveils SpaceShipTwo cabin as it prepares for commercial flights
Virgin Galactic showed off the interior of its SpaceShipTwo suborbital spaceplane July 28 as the company prepares to wrap up the campaign of test flights of the vehicle and begin commercial operations.

Space Adventures signs contract for Soyuz flight with spacewalk option
Space tourism company Space Adventures has signed a contract with RSC Energia for a Soyuz flight to the International Space Station that will include an opportunity for one customer to perform a spacewalk.

World View founders launch new stratospheric ballooning venture
Two entrepreneurs who founded a high-altitude ballooning company nearly a decade ago have started a second such venture, hoping to realize their original vision of giving the public a taste of spaceflight.

Space Adventures to fly tourists on Crew Dragon mission
Space Adventures announced Feb. 18 that it has an agreement with SpaceX to fly a dedicated Crew Dragon mission that would send four space tourists on a mission to a relatively high Earth orbit.

Virgin Galactic projects rapid growth and profitability after going public
With an $800 million infusion thanks to a merger with a public investment vehicle, Virgin Galactic expects to rapidly build up commercial operations and be profitable as soon as 2021.

Space Adventures reaches settlement with would-be lunar tourist
Space tourism company Space Adventures has reached a settlement in a lawsuit brought nearly two years ago by a man who signed up for the company’s proposed mission around the moon but later sought a refund of his deposit.

Foust Forward | Space tourism’s image problem
For the very patient advocates of space tourism, the good news is that 2019 may finally be the year that tourists get to fly on suborbital vehicles.

Blue Origin still holding off on New Shepard ticket sales
Blue Origin expects to start flying people on its New Shepard suborbital vehicle early this year, but has yet to start selling tickets or even establish a ticket price for future commercial flights.

Startup announces plans for low-cost commercial space station
A startup claims it will be able to place a single-module commercial space station into orbit by 2022, although the company faces multiple and significant technical and financial hurdles.

Russia studying dedicated space tourism missions using its Soyuz spacecraft
Glavkosmos Director General Denis Lyskov said at the Paris Air Show Tuesday that future missions could fly two tourists and one professional cosmonaut, possibly visiting the ISS.

‘What the hell happened?’: The rise and fall of suborbital space tourism companies
In 2004, Burt Rutan predicted a vibrant future for commercial suborbital spaceflight. Thirteen years after SpaceShipOne nabbed the Ansari X Prize, suborbital space tourism has yet to take off.

Capital Contributions | Space tourism investment prospects in the near future
Both Blue Origin and Virgin Galactic should be positioned to fly paying passengers in late 2018. How will a successful commercial flight impact the economics of space tourism? What is the demand for such flights?

All booked: Virgin Galactic says suborbital spaceflights are full until 2021
About 650 customers are already holding tickets for SpaceShip Two, said Stephen Attenborough, commercial director of Virgin Galactic.

Your smartphone could be your ticket to space — if Space Nation takes flight
Space Nation, the Finnish startup seeking to pave the way for the transition of humanity into space, announced plans May 16 conduct experiments on the international space station.