2021 has been a busy year for private space tourism: overall, more than 15

civilians took a trip to space during this year.

What is space tourism?

Space tourism is human space travel for recreational or leisure purposes. It’s

divided into different types, including orbital, suborbital, and lunar space

tourism.

However, there are broader definitions for space tourism. According to the

Space Tourism Guide, space tourism is a commercial activity related to

space that includes going to space as a tourist, watching a rocket launch,

going stargazing, or travelling to a space-focused destination.

Brief history of space tourism

The first space tourist was Dennis Tito, an American multimillionaire, who spent

nearly eight days onboard the International Space Station in April 2001. This

trip cost him $20 million and made Tito the first private citizen who purchased

his space ticket. Over the next eight years, six more private citizens followed

Tito to the International Space Station to become space tourists.

As space tourism became a real thing, dozens of companies entered this

industry hoping to capitalize on renewed public interest in space, including

Blue Origin in 2000 and Virgin Galactic in 2004. In the 2000s, space tourists

were limited to launches aboard Russian Soyuz aircraft and only could go to

the ISS. However, everything changed when the other players started to grow

up on the market. There are now a variety of destinations and companies for

travels to space.

Orbital and suborbital space flights

Orbital and suborbital flights are very different. Taking an orbital flight means

staying in orbit; in other words, going around the planet continually at a very

high speed to not fall back to the Earth. Such a trip takes several days, even

a week or more.

A suborbital flight in its turn is more like a space hop — you blast off, make a

huge arc, and eventually fall back to the Earth, never making it into orbit. A

flight duration, in this case, ranges from 2 to 3 hours. This flight takes less

energy, less fuel; therefore, it is less expensive

Is space tourism worth it?

What exactly do you expect from a journey to space? Besides the awesome

impressions, here is what you can experience during such a trip:

● Weightlessness. Keep in mind that during a suborbital flight you’ll get

only a couple of minutes in weightlessness, but it will be truly

fascinating.

● Space sickness. The symptoms include cold sweating, malaise, loss of

appetite, nausea, fatigue, and vomiting. Even experienced astronauts

are not immune from it!

● G-force. 1G is the acceleration we feel due to the force of gravity; a

usual g-force astronauts experience during a rocket launch is around

3gs.

Adapted from: What Is Space Tourism | Cost, Companies, Future |

Commercial Space Flight | Space Impacts | Star Walk