The First 20 Years of Space Tourism (2001-2021): A Chronology
The First 20 Years of Space Tourism: Space Tourists and their Inaugural Outer Space Flight | Alex S. Li
“Life, forever dying to be born afresh, forever young and eager, will presently stand upon this Earth as upon a footstool, and stretch out its realm amidst the stars.”
****MAJOR UPDATE ON 8/10/2023****: I have started an online supplement to this piece where I will try and maintain an updated list of space tourists, categorized by their inaugural spaceflights. You can visit the catalog here: https://alexsli.com/thespacebar/spacetouristslist. Thank you!
**** MAJOR UPDATE ON 5/15/2023: I have rewritten and incorporated the below into a law review paper: "Touring Outer Space: The Past, Present, and Future of Space Tourism" by Alex S. Li (csuohio.edu). Please review the material there as it is more up-to-date than below. Thank you! ****
Believe it or not, last year marked the 20th anniversary of space tourism. Within these two decades, this industry saw 31 tourists travel to Outer Space over the course of 14 missions. In celebration of this milestone, I will provide a brief look at each of these space tourists and the missions that took them to humanity’s final frontier.
Before we begin, a couple of notes. Technically, there were 15 missions, but one mission was omitted because it was the second trip up for the only space tourist on the ride. Additionally, I did not count any flights that was not primarily focused on space tourism—e.g., ones that are more politically-oriented or for entertainment and media productions or educational purposes. But, I did include all flights that went beyond the lower 80-km Outer Space demarcation line as the passengers still considered by some as space tourists.
The First Space Tourist
Outer Space Tourism officially—and literally—took off on April 28, 2001 when Dennis Tito hitched a ride onboard a Soyuz to the International Space Station (ISS). For this vacation of a lifetime, Tito paid approximately $20 million. Although this ISS experience was eventually brokered by a Virginia-based company called Space Adventures, the journey in becoming the first-ever space tourist was not without false starts and headaches. But after persevering through all the issues, Tito was able to take off as a part of Mission TM-32 and—upon entering Outer Space—became the world’s first ever space tourist. After spending “eight days of euphoria” in Outer Space, Tito landed back on Earth on May 6, 2001.
The Second Space Tourist
Once Dennis Tito showed that a new form of tourism was possible, others quickly followed suit. Within a year, Mark Shuttleworth became the world’s second space tourist and the first person to go to Outer Space from the continent of Africa. On April 25, 2002, Shuttleworth began his journey upwards to the ISS as a part of Mission TM-34 onboard a Soyuz after spending eight months training at Star City. This trip was also arranged by Spaces Adventures, and Shuttleworth reportedly paid more than $20 million for his trip to Outer Space.
The Scientist Space Tourist
After Mark Shuttleworth’s flight, space tourism took a three year hiatus before the next tourist took his ride into Outer Space. Inspired by Tito and Shuttleworth, Gregory Olsen, a scientist-businessman focused on fiber optics and infrared sensor technologies, became the world’s third space tourist. For this privilege, he paid about $20 million. But, Olsen’s earthly journey to Outer Space had its bumps along the way with a personal health issue almost permanently grounding him. But his tenacity paid off and Olsen eventually launched onboard a Soyuz as a part of Mission TMA-7 on October 1, 2005.
The First Female Space Tourist
On September 18, 2006, Anousheh Ansari became the world’s first female space tourist after launching onboard a Soyuz via Mission TMA-9. Her 11-day trip in Outer Space was also arranged by Space Adventures and cost about $20 million as well. But, Ansari’s contribution to space tourism did not start with this trip. Prior to her Outer Space flight, Ansari was a major benefactor of the “Ansari X Prize,” a $10 million competition to build the world’s first private reusable spacecraft that can launch twice into Outer Space within two weeks. The winning design, SpaceShipOne, was eventually licensed to and set the foundation for the now famous space tourism company, Virgin Galactic.
The First Tourist to go to Space Twice
On April 7, 2007, Charles Simonyi became the world’s fifth space tourist when he launched onboard a Soyuz with the crew of Mission TM-10. But as exclusive as this unique tourism club is, on March 26, 2009, Simonyi literally one-up the other space tourists by becoming the first—and currently only—space tourist to visit the ISS twice. For these two trips arranged by Space Adventures, Simonyi paid a total about $60 million combined. With each stay onboard the ISS lasting more than a week, Simonyi still holds the record for the longest time spent in Outer Space as a space tourist at a little bit more than 26.5 days.
An Astronaut’s Son
The world’s sixth space tourist, Richard Garriott, blasted off for Outer Space onboard a Soyuz with the crew of Mission TMA-13 on October 12, 2008. However, unlike the other space tourists, Garriott has a deep connection with the human spaceflight industry. He is the first, and so far only, space tourist who was raised in an astronaut family. Growing up, Garriott wanted to follow the footsteps of his father and join NASA. But, this dream was shattered because of his poor eyesight. However, this obstacle did not stop him from reaching Outer Space. Pursuing this dream, in 1998, he co-founded the first company devoted to space tourism, Space Adventures. After paying $30 million for a seat with his company, he finally made it to Outer Space. While onboard the ISS, he performed over 30 experiments, one of which, ironically, is a NASA study on his eyes. Because of this experiment, others like Garriott will no longer be automatically disqualified for eyesight as long as they are laser corrected.
The ‘Clown’ Tourist
Wearing a clown’s red nose, Guy Laliberté became the world’s seventh space tourist as he flew toward Outer Space on September 30, 2009 with the crew of Mission TMA-16. A founder of the famous Cirque Du Soleil franchise, Laliberté paid $35 million for his 11-day trip in Outer Space, which he called “an amazing journey.” Like many others, Laliberté believes that more people should go to Outer Space because of the impact it would have on how people would perceive the world and life, empowering humanity to thrive to make “a better planet.”
The First Virgin Galactic Space Passenger
After Laliberté’s trip up to Outer Space, it would be more than a decade before the next space tourist reserves another seat on the Soyuz. With the retirement of the Space Shuttle, NASA had to buy seats on the Soyuz to transport its and its partners astronauts up to the ISS. With governmental agencies out of the picture for the time being, the space tourism industry had to rely on private enterprises to carry the baton forward. One of these contenders is Virgin Galactic. After a longer road than most anticipated, on February 22, 2019, Virgin Galactic was able to reach Outer Space for the first time with a passenger, Beth Moses, onboard. Designated VF-01, this flight saw its spaceship, VSS Unity, reach an altitude of 89.9 kilometers and spend about five minutes in Outer Space. Hence with this mission, Moses became the world’s eighth space tourist and first woman to fly to Outer Space on a commercial spaceship.
A Fuller Virgin Galactic Crew
After the success of VF-01, many eagerly awaited for Richard Branson, the founder of Virgin Galactic, to make his way up to Outer Space via his company’s spacecraft. However, Virgin Galactic had a few issues to resolve prior to making this come true. This delay turned out to last more than everyone expected but on July 11, 2021, Branson along with three of his fellow Virgin Galactic colleagues flew to Outer Space. Named Unity 22, the mission was VSS Unity’s twenty-second flight and fourth flight to Outer Space, reaching an apogee of about 86 kilometers above sea level. All those onboard enjoyed about four minutes of weightlessness before the spacecraft returned to Earth. Branson’s fellow passengers included Sirisha Bandla, Colin Bennett, and Beth Moses.
Aside from Moses and the pilots, it was everyone’s first flight to Outer Space. Each of the passengers had a different role to play. Moses’ primary responsibility was to oversee the safety of the flight. Bandla, who is the Vice President of Government Affairs and Research Operations at Virgin Galactic, evaluated the research experience by conducting an experiment sponsored by University of Florida. Bennett, Lead Operations Engineer at Virgin Galactic, observed certain engineering aspects of VSS Unity’s interior cabin. While Branson critiqued the space tourist flight experience.
The First Blue Origin Human Spaceflight
With Branson reaching Outer Space—at least according to one of the definitions, the billionaires’ race for space tourism entered a new phase. Soon after Virgin Galactic’s launches, it was Blue Origin’s turn. Founded by Jeff Bezos in September 2000, Blue Origin is a spaceflight company focusing on several aspects of Outer Space. With Bezo’s Outer Space dreams started on the day of Apollo 11’s historic moon landing, Blue Origin timed its first human spaceflight for the fifty-second anniversary of this iconic event. Named NS-16—after the sixteenth launch of the New Shepard rocket system—the mission successfully took four space tourists into Outer Space on July 20, 2021. The spaceflight had an apogee of about 107 kilometers above sea level and the passengers experienced about four minutes of weightlessness.
Aside from Jeff Bezos and his brother, Mark Bezos, the pilotless flight also included Oliver Daemen and Wally Funk. Daemen was a last minute addition to the flight with his father securing the ticket after the original purchaser backing out. For Funk, the spaceflight marked the end of a journey that was more than fifty years in the making: she is a part of the first group of women—known as the Mercury 13—that had passed NASA’s initial screening tests for its first official set of astronauts.
The First SpaceX Space Tourism Trip
With two of three competitors in the billionaires’ space race finding success in space tourism, the last one, Elon Musk’s Space Exploration Technologies Corporation—'SpaceX’—was not to be left behind. After several historic launches (here and here), SpaceX became quite an accomplished manned flight company. With human spaceflights becoming routine for this commercial Outer Space darling, it turned its attention to space tourism with mission Inspiration4. Organized and financed by Jared Isaacman, Inspiration4 is designed as a fundraiser for St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital, each member of the all-civilian crew was selected to represent one of four positive qualities of humanity: Generosity, Hope, Leadership, and Prosperity. Isaacman, as the mission’s founder and first crew member, took on the leadership role. Next came Hayley Arceneaux, a physician assistant for St. Jude who is a pediatric cancer survivor, who took on the Hope role. Christopher Sembroski—an Air Force veteran and data engineer—took the third seat, Generosity, after one of his friends won the charity raffle and decided to transfer the seat to him. Finally, Siam Proctor, who had been a finalist in NASA’s astronaut selection process, won the final seat representing Prosperity.
After a grueling training program, on September 15, 2021, the four space tourists blasted off inside a crew dragon capsule named Resilience on top of a Falcon 9 rocket. For three days, the crew circled the globe in low earth orbit at about 590 kilometers above mean sea level—much higher than the orbit of the ISS. Although Inspiration4 had a slight hiccup with its toilet system, the mission’s many firsts more than overcame any flaws. Arceneaux became the youngest American to reach Outer Space and the first person to fly with a prosthetic device. Proctor became the first black female spacecraft pilot. And on the entertainment side, Isaacman became the first individual to place bets on a sports game from Outer Space.
Blue Origin Boldly Going into Outer Space Again
With each of the billionaire-founded space companies having had a successful space tourism flight, the question turned to which vehicle would perform its second space tourism flight first. This was quickly answered by Blue Origin. On October 13, 2021, the New Shepard vehicle launched four more passengers into Outer Space via mission NS-18. The crew experienced about four minutes of weightlessness and reached an apogee of about 106 kilometers above mean sea level. For the crew of four, two were paying passengers (Chris Boshuizen and Glen de Vries) while the two others were selected for the flight (William Shatner and Audrey Powers). The most recognized one of this crew of four is William Shatner, who played Captain Kirk in the original Star Trek series.
At age 90, Shatner also became the oldest person to reach Outer Space, surpassing Funk’s record, at 82, set just three short months before in the same vehicle. Meanwhile Powers, having served as a flight controller for the ISS program, rode up for free as a Blue Origin employee; she oversees the company’s regulatory and legal matters. Her fellow passenger, Boshuizen, is also experienced in the Outer Space industry, having co-founded Planet Labs, an Earth observational satellite data company. The NS-18 crew was rounded out by de Vries—a co-founder of Medidata Solutions—who described the entire experience as “incredible.”
Space Adventures Back in the Game
Once SpaceX had successfully certified its crew dragon capsule and Falcon 9 rocket system for manned operations to the ISS, NASA no longer needed to purchase seats on the Soyuz to transport astronauts up to the space station. With space available on the Soyuz again, Space Adventures was able to resume its space tourism partnership with the Russian space agency. On December 8, 2021, space tourism’s return to the ISS began with Yozo Hirano and Yusaku Maezawa launching onboard a Soyuz via Mission MS-20. This spaceflight also represented the first time that two space tourists went up at the same time. Both seats were paid for by Maezawa, with each costing somewhere between $70 million to $100 million.
Taking only about six hours to arrive at the ISS after four orbits around Earth, Maezawa also made history by making the first ever Uber Eats delivery to Outer Space. On their stay onboard the ISS, Maezawa and Hirano made a series of videos posted to Maezawa’s YouTube channel on what daily life is like onboard a space station. After a 12-day stay onboard the ISS, both Maezawa and Hirano landed safely back on Earth near Zhezkagan, Kazakhstan. However, this will not be Maezawa’s last adventure in Outer Space as he has already booked a trip farther out in Outer Space—an orbit around the Moon—with SpaceX’s Starship rocket as part of his dearMoon project.
The First Fully Crewed Blue Origin Flight
Finally on December 11, 2021, Blue Origin wrapped up the first twenty years of space tourism with its third manned flight, NS-19. On this mission, the crew capsule reached an apogee of about 106 kilometers above mean sea level on a 10 minute 13 second flight. In Outer Space, the passengers experienced about four minutes of weightlessness. With all of the seats taken up, this is also the first flight since the retirement of the Space Shuttle that a crew of six launched into Outer Space in the same vehicle. The passengers included four paying passengers (Cameron Bess, Lane Bess, Evan Dick, and Dylan Taylor) and two invited guests (Laura Shepard-Churchley and Michael Strahan).
Embarking to Outer Space on the New Shepard rocket system was especially poignant and personal moment for Shepard-Churchley; Blue Origin named this rocket system after her father, Alan Shepard, who was the first American to travel to Outer Space. Accompanying Shepard-Churchley as an invited guest was Strahan, a former American football player who had reported on Blue Origin’s first manned launch for the television show, Good Morning America. All four paying space tourists all had an memorable experience as well. Taylor—the chairman and CEO of the space enterprise Voyager Space—and Dick—a volunteer pilot for Starfighters Aerospace—both thought the Outer Space trip was a dream come true. Also making history is the Bess family who became the first parent-child pair to travel into Outer Space together.
