> They might play a significant role in bringing about space tourism, but that's yet to be seen.
I hope so. SpaceX is launching a private spaceflight soon, for which each passenger is paying $55 million.[1] That's not really game changing, though, because Russia has been selling seats for similar prices for years, and it's space tourism only for billionaires. SpaceX is working on big, expensive rockets and talking about Mars.
Blue Origin and Virgin Galactic seem to be our best hope of seeing space tourism for the masses. They both talk about selling short suborbital trips for less than $1 million soon, and if that is popular, efficiency of scale should lead to further price decreases.
SpaceX hopes that Starship will cost $200k per launch and that they'll be able to offer point-to-point transport on earth under an hour for a cost of business class airline ticket. You'll go to space as a side effect.
Given that cost structure, eventually they should be able to offer a trip around the moon for tens of thousands of dollars.
I hope so. SpaceX is launching a private spaceflight soon, for which each passenger is paying $55 million.[1] That's not really game changing, though, because Russia has been selling seats for similar prices for years, and it's space tourism only for billionaires. SpaceX is working on big, expensive rockets and talking about Mars.
Blue Origin and Virgin Galactic seem to be our best hope of seeing space tourism for the masses. They both talk about selling short suborbital trips for less than $1 million soon, and if that is popular, efficiency of scale should lead to further price decreases.
1: https://apnews.com/article/1st-private-space-crew-pay-55m-ea...