What is space tourism?

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**Joseph Chance** (1:37)
What is space tourism?
Thanks for asking.
Just over a week ago, Amazon founder Jeff Bezos stepped down from his position as the company's CEO to focus on other projects. He'll remain executive chairman at Amazon, but now wants to dedicate more time to other projects, including his space tourism company Blue Origin. Following that surprise announcement, British business magnate Richard Branson also declared his desire to go into space with his company Virgin Galactic. Some have labelled these developments as a new dawn for space tourism. So, who's earning bragging rights in the billionaires space race? Well, Bezos is due to travel into space for the first time on July 20th, but Branson managed to schedule his flight for July 11th, over a week before his American counterpart. He took off from New Mexico, flying to the edge of space on the Virgin Galactic Unity rocket plane, before safely returning to Earth an hour later. Wow, talk about stealing the spotlight! Sounds like it was a big win for Branson. You'd think so, and Jeff Bezos did graciously post his congratulations on Instagram on Sunday.
Nevertheless, there has been a lot of comment on the petty nature of the rivalry between the two billionaires and their respective companies. Blue Origin representatives have been quick to point out that the Virgin Galactic flight wouldn't reach the Kármán line. At an altitude of 62 miles above the earth, the line is often cited as a boundary between earth's atmosphere and space, but other standards recognize the edge of space as being at an altitude of 50 miles. In any case, both flights are classed as sub-orbital, which means they won't travel fast enough to remain in orbit once they reach space. Passengers will still experience weightlessness for several minutes before their capsule begins to freefall back to earth, safely protected by parachutes and retro rockets. How long has space tourism been around? The first commercial space flights actually took place early in the 21st century. Between 2001 and 2009, a number of space tourists travelled to the International Space Station aboard Russian Soyuz spacecraft. That situated over 250 miles above planet earth. Then in 2004, SpaceShipOne made the first ever crewed private space flight.
Wait, are you saying one day tourists will simply be able to jump onto a rocket into space? Indeed, the idea is that in due course, commercial flights will be opened up for members of the public to book their holiday to space. The likes of Branson, Bezos and Elon Musk, the CEO of SpaceX, are even looking at building hotels in space. But to begin with, prices will be prohibitive to all but the extremely wealthy. At an auction back in June, one anonymous bidder agreed to pay $28 million to join the Blue Origin flight. Meanwhile, Virgin Galactic has been selling tickets for between $200,000 and $250,000. Paltry in comparison, but still out of the reach of most of the world's population. The idea of space travel has fascinated humans for many years, and space tourism is set to make more and more headlines in the coming months. Who knows? Maybe one day it will be more widely accessible and you'll be able to book that trip.