When are the first 'regular' space tourist commercial flights actually due to start?
We've seen promises from "by the year 2000", 2003, floating hotels by 2007, and so on. Now we have the first cargo ship by a private company ACTUALLY dock with the ISS, hooray! SpaceshipTwo with Virgin Galactic is finally doing test flights.
However, I can't find any info on their webpages or press releases - a couple of times they've said "in the next two years".
What's the earliest PUBLISHED date any current companies have set for a launch for a tourist flight (excluding NASA or Russian flights)?
edit
As I said, excluding NASA or Russian flights, and really mean 'mass' tourism - available to those who aren't millionaires.
Best Answer
Space tourism has been taking place since 2001
The first real space tourist1 was Dennis Tito, spending a week on the ISS in mid-2001. The trip cost him about $20 million US and was organized by Space Adventures, who organized a total of 8 trips for 7 tourists (Charles Simonyi went twice) to the ISS between 2001 and 2009. All trips were made aboard Soyuz-TMA spacecraft. The most recent trips cost around $30-$35 million US. The program is currently on hold, but set to resume next year:
On January 12, 2011, Space Adventures and the Russian Federal Space Agency announced that orbital space tourism would resume in 2013 with the increase of manned Soyuz launches to the ISS from four to five per year.
1 The term "space tourist" is disputable.
Pictures about "When are the first 'regular' space tourist commercial flights actually due to start?"
When can we expect commercial space travel?
You can almost count the number of completed space tourist launches on one hand \u2014 Blue Origin has had four; SpaceX, two. Virgin Galactic, meanwhile, on Thursday announced the launch of its commercial passenger service, previously scheduled for late 2022, was delayed until early 2023.Will there ever be commercial flights to space?
The company blames "supply chain and labor constraints" for the three-month delay. Aspiring space tourists will need to wait a little longer before soaring into suborbital space with Virgin Galactic.When was the first tourist space flight?
Dennis Tito's trip into space in 2001 represents a major milestone in both space travel and tourism as a whole, as he became recognised as the world's first space tourist.EVERGLOW (에버글로우) - FIRST MV
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