The reality of space tourism is still years away, but wealthy individuals continue to lineup for the day they can enjoy a gravity-free vacation.
XCOR, one of the companies vying to carve out a space in the fledgling industry, has already sold some 150 advance tickets to high-net-worth individuals angling for a space on one of their space voyages. Tickets sell for $150,000 a pop for a 40-minute ride into outer space on the Lynx space craft.
“There have been several setbacks that companies have had to overcome, but I think that in the next two to five years we will see a lot of exciting progress in the space tourism sector,” said Eric Stallmer, president of the Commercial Spaceflight Federation, whose member companies include commercial spaceflight developers, operators, spaceports, suppliers and service providers.
No scheduled dates for first flights are set, but there’s steady interest, according to Jay Gibson, CEO of XCOR, a developer and producer of highly reusable rocket engines and spacecraft.
“The obstacles are technical,” Gibson told Private Wealth. “We are closer to being finished than we have ever been in developing, building and flying our first prototype.”
XCOR is the only space tourism company that has chosen to take off and land horizontally to complete round trip travel from Earth to space and back. Other space tourism companies that are offering trips into outer space sometime in the future include Virgin Galactic and Blue Origin.
“Blue Origin is employing a vertical take off and landing,” said Gibson. “Virgin Galactic space flights are air dropped and come in for horizontal landing.”
While both Blue Origin and Virgin Galactic will carry multiple space tourists on each flight, XCOR only accommodates one passenger, who is required to wear a pressure suit.
“We operate with reusable engines, low-toxicity fuel and our spacecraft has stop-and-start capabilities like a commercial aircraft so you can fly multiple times a day from an authorized spaceport,” Gibson said.
Gibson estimates the space rides for all the people who currently have paid up to $75,000 in advance as a deposit could be completed in one year once the first commercial flight is launched.