WASHINGTON -- A new survey shows a public hungry to buy tickets for sub-orbital jaunts above Earth. High-flying passengers would earn their astronaut wings while eyeing the planet during their free fall flight.

Sub-orbital treks are just that. They are up and down hops to the edge of space, but at speeds below that needed to hurl people and payloads into Earth orbit.

But there is one snag. Public space transportation needed to propel thrill seekers skyward remains in the early development stage.

A Space Adventures market analysis fact sheet spells out key findings of the survey, specifically:

• At the price of $100,000, more than 10,000 people per year would purchase a sub-orbital space flight experience. That would result in a $1 billion annual yield solely from sub-orbital tourist flights;
• Of the people surveyed in the U.S. and Canada, 51 percent want to travel into space. Some 19 percent of those polled want to participate in space-related activities;
• Overall, 86 percent of those surveyed were interested in traveling to space for leisure and tourism;
• People have various motivations for wanting to fly into space. In ranking order, they are: (1) The desire to look at Earth from space; (2) The desire to look at space from space; (3) Actually being in space; (4) Staying aboard a space station; and (5) Experiencing weightlessness.

Buoyed by the findings of the survey is Eric Anderson, President of Space Adventures. He said that the results are strong enough to take to the bank, literally.

"It clearly shows that there are thousands of people per year who will fly on sub-orbital vehicles. That means hundreds of millions of dollars, or even billions of dollars of annual revenue," Anderson told SPACE.com.

"If the service were available today, that's what the market would provide. It means that the sub-orbital experience, while not an orbital flight, satisfies the public desire for spaceflight," Anderson said.

But like all forms of transportation, accidents do happen. If a passenger-carrying sub-orbital craft were to spin out of control and crash, how would the accident impact public interest in space travel?

"People who want to do this are people that want to do it. People don't stop climbing Mt. Everest just because somebody died last year," Anderson said. Those that fly into space are taking on a life-changing experience, he said, "and they are willing to take some risks for that."

Anderson is convinced that getting public travelers eventually into Earth orbit is a step-by-step process. What is first required is maturing the sub-orbital market. "It's the right stepit has to happen," he said.