Space Tourism

As humankind’s exploration of space progressed through the second half of the twentieth century, people began to dream of a day when ordinary people could begin to experience space travel. In the first year of the new millennium, this dream became a reality with the world’s first commercial space tourist, Mr. Dennis Tito, who paid for the opportunity to accompany Russian cosmonauts for several days’ accommodation within the International Space Station. Soon thereafter, several further space tourists have repeated Tito’s experience and, in doing so, have helped to finance Russia’s efforts in space.

The Russian space program and the International Space Station are primarily government-funded operations. As such, they were never designed with commercial space tourism in mind. However, various entrepreneurs have been pursuing the private development of commercial public space tourism over the past quarter century. A US$10 million prize, the Ansari X Prize (Dinerman 2004) was offered to...