How Much Will It Cost To Be a Space Tourist?
In October 2021, actor William Shatner explored the final frontier as the oldest person to ever cross the Karman line — the commonly accepted divide between the Earth’s atmosphere and outer space.
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Shatner traveled on Jeff Bezos’ Blue Origin spacecraft, New Shepard, as the billionaire’s guest, per People. Other celebrities, including Michael Strahan, have also traveled on the New Shepard. Flights on the prestigious rocket range from free — if you are invited by Bezos — up to $28 million, according to Observer.
A flight on Virgin Galactic’s suborbital rocket plane costs $450,000, but it only reaches the edge of space, to an altitude of more than 50 miles. The New Shepard, on the other hand, reaches an altitude of 66 miles.
Is Space Tourism Actually Going To Happen?
This decade has seen more civilians and non-astronauts venture into space than ever before. Yet, the space tourism industry hasn’t quite taken off as many expected.
In the town of Truth or Consequences, New Mexico, Spaceport America sits largely unused. The commercial spaceport cost $218.5 million in public money, funded partly by sales tax from local businesses. The venture was expected to bring in $550 million in economic activity for Sierra County and create roughly 4,300 jobs, The New York Times reported.
Yet, following the first flight carrying people in May 2021, the project has only generated roughly 800 jobs and brought in an extra $138 million to the county.
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Virgin Galactic Slows Operations for Spaceport America
Virgin Galactic, the spaceport’s primary tenant, made six launches this year but recently announced it would suspend flights in mid-2024 following layoffs that saw 185 employees let go.
The cutbacks were designed to enable Virgin Galactic to shift focus to a new class of suborbital space planes, putting launches from Spaceport America on the back burner temporarily.
Richard Branson — founder of the Virgin Group, parent company of Virgin Galactic — said the private space company holds about $1 billion in capital, enough to carry the company through 2026. “We don’t have the deepest pockets,” he told The Financial Times.
If space tourism is to become accessible, turning Spaceport America into the attraction the people of Truth or Consequences had hoped it could be, prices will have to drop. Meanwhile, the price of the cheapest ticket, unless you’re friends with a billionaire, is more than the median home price in the U.S., which is $411,887, according to Redfin.
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This article originally appeared on GOBankingRates.com: How Much Will It Cost To Be a Space Tourist?
