Space Tourism

Learn the latest news about space tourism and space tourist trips into outer space. Space.com looks at the growing business of space tourism. 

Related Topics: SpaceX, Virgin Galactic, Incredible Space Tech, International Space Station, Interstellar Travel 

Latest Updates

The Ax-1 crew takes part in a launch dress rehearsal, from left: Mark Pathy, Larry Connor, Michael Lopez-Alegria and Eytan Stibbe.

Axiom Space Ax-1 mission: The first all-private crew to the International Space Station

By Elizabeth Howell last updated

Reference Axiom Mission 1 is the first all private mission to the International Space Station by the company Axiom Space.

Representatives from the Polaris Program hold a Ukrainian flag that will fly into space later in 2022.

Ukrainian flag will launch on SpaceX rocket with Polaris Dawn crew this year

By Elizabeth Howell published

The all-private Polaris Dawn crewed mission joined other space entities worldwide in supporting Ukraine.

Image for What happens when someone dies in space? Space tourism brings new legal and moral issues

What happens when someone dies in space? Space tourism brings new legal and moral issues

By Christopher Newman, Nick Caplan published

Commercial spaceflight companies such as Virgin Galactic and Blue Origin are now offering exclusive opportunities for celebrities and civilians to travel to space.

Axiom Space's first private crewed mission to the International Space Station is scheduled to launch on March 30, 2022. From left to right: pilot Larry Connor, mission commander and retired NASA astronaut Michael López-Alegría, mission specialist Mark Pathy and mission specialist Eytan Stibbe.

Ax-1, 1st all-private crewed flight to ISS, aims to blaze trail for future missions

By Elizabeth Howell last updated

Medical research and tech transfer will fill the agenda of the four Axiom-1 crewmembers after they launch to the space station on March 30.

Axiom Space's first private crewed mission to the International Space Station is scheduled to launch on March 30, 2022. From left to right: pilot Larry Connor, mission commander and retired NASA astronaut Michael López-Alegría, mission specialist Mark Pathy and mission specialist Eytan Stibbe.

NASA, SpaceX and Axiom will preview private Ax-1 ISS mission today: Watch live

By Mike Wall last updated

NASA, SpaceX and Axiom Space will discuss a landmark private space mission today (Feb. 28), and you can watch it live.

A view of Earth from Virgin Galactic's SpaceShipTwo VSS Unity during the Unity 22 flight on July 11, 2021.

Virgin Galactic plans to start flying paying customers this year

By Mike Wall published

Virgin Galactic's suborbital spaceliner is grounded at the moment, but the company is confident it'll be fully up and running by the end of the year.

The crew of Blue Origin's NS-19 mission at apogee on Dec. 11, 2021. Pictured from left to right: Evan Dick, Michael Strahan, Laura Shepard Churchley, Dylan Taylor, Lane Bess and Cameron Bess.

Blue Origin plans to boost spaceflight launches in 2022: report

By Elizabeth Howell published

The space tourism company hopes to fly twice the number of people it did in 2021.

Virgin Galactic founder Richard Branson soars like Superman while in weightlessness during his Unity 22 launch on the SpaceShipTwo VSS Unity on July 11, 2021.

Virgin Galactic is reopening space tourist ticket sales for a limited time

By Elizabeth Howell published

Starting Wednesday (Feb. 16), aspiring space tourists can once again book a trip to the final frontier with Virgin Galactic.

Shift4 Payments founder and CEO Jared Isaacman will command a new set of missions to space with SpaceX as part of The Polaris Program.

Hope for the future of space exploration lies at the heart of SpaceX's new 'Polaris' missions

By Chelsea Gohd last updated

SpaceX aims to make progress in space and on Earth with its new venture, the Polaris Program. And the team behind it couldn't be more excited.

Polaris Dawn crewmembers Anna Menon, Scott Pottet, Jared Isaacman and Sarah Gillis.

Meet the four private Polaris Dawn astronauts SpaceX will launch into orbit this year

By Elizabeth Howell last updated

The billionaire commander of SpaceX's Inspiration4 mission is flying back to space again with a set of new crewmates.

The first commercial spacewalk is planned for the first mission of billionaire Jared Isaacman's newly-announced "Polaris Program," dubbed "Polaris Dawn," to be launched with a crew of four as soon as November or December 2022.

Billionaire's 'Polaris Program' to set space records on SpaceX Dragon, Starship

By Robert Z. Pearlman last updated

The billionaire commander of the first "all-civilian" space mission has now filed a new flight plan, underwriting a series of three SpaceX launches to rapidly advance human spaceflight capabilities.

A view of Earth from Virgin Galactic's SpaceShipTwo VSS Unity during the Unity 22 flight on July 11, 2021.

Want a free trip to suborbital space? Apply by Feb. 15 to become a 'citizen astronaut'

By Mike Wall published

'We want people who are really, really passionate about whatever it is that they care about.'

Axiom Space's first private crewed mission to the International Space Station is scheduled to launch on March 30, 2022. From left to right: pilot Larry Connor, mission commander and retired NASA astronaut Michael López-Alegría, mission specialist Mark Pathy and mission specialist Eytan Stibbe.

Axiom Space's 1st space station crew approved by NASA, ISS partners

By Doris Elin Urrutia last updated

The flight, called Ax-1, is made up of one professional astronaut and three paying customers.

Tom Cruise as IMF agent Ethan Hunt in Mission: Impossible 3.

Tom Cruise asks NASA astronaut Victor Glover all about spaceflight (video)

By Elizabeth Howell published

"Top Gun" star Tom Cruise and NASA astronaut Victor Glover bonded virtually over fast planes and SpaceX spaceships in a wide-ranging conversation about astronaut training.

Artist's illustration of the crewed space plane being developed by the Chinese company Space Transportation.

Chinese space plane company targets suborbital tourism, point-to-point travel by 2025

By Andrew Jones published

The Chinese company Space Transportation is developing a "rocket with wings" for space tourism and point-to-point travel.

NS-19 launch

In photos: Michael Strahan's launch into space on Blue Origin's New Shepard

By Elizabeth Howell published

See the 'Good Morning America' host and former football star touch down after a spaceflight.

The International Space Station as seen by astronauts aboard a SpaceX Crew Dragon spacecraft on Nov. 8, 2021.

Axiom's 1st private crew launch to space station delayed to March

By Elizabeth Howell last updated

Spacecraft prep and orbital traffic pushed the first all-private space station mission one month later.

Grand ideas of extraterrestrial colonization are hardly new. In the 1940s, the nascent Space Age set in motion calls for a new wave of colonization directed outwards into space.

The solar system belongs to us all, not just Jeff Bezos

By Alan Marshall published

Like colonialism of old, Bezos’s space colonization plans heavily depend on resource extraction and unfair and abusive labor practices.

Russian cosmonaut Mikhail Tyurin holds the Olympic torch as he enters the International Space Station.

Let the space games begin! Ideas for off-Earth sports move to center court

By Leonard David published

An alliance of experts in space, sports and the entertainment industry are designing and developing original games exclusively for low or microgravity playing fields.

The Inspiration4 crew poses for a selfie in the cupola of their SpaceX Crew Dragon spacecraft.

Inspiration4: The first all-civilian spaceflight on SpaceX Dragon

By Vicky Stein, Scott Dutfield published

REFERENCE Inspiration4 was the world's first orbital spaceflight unsupervised by professional astronauts, using commercial equipment to launch civilian space enthusiasts into orbit.