Of course Space Adventures doesn’t have exclusive in this area. Other companies are also arranging similar flights. For instance, Virgin Galactic (created by the founder of Virgin Atlantic), is also planning similar suborbital flights to be launched over the next year or two, along with plans to build a commercial space port in the state of New Mexico. In addition, a European company called EADS also recently unveiled its plans for a jet that will take passengers suborbital. These are just a few of the major players launching recent developments in the growing field of space tourism.
The cost to reserve a seat on these types of suborbital flights, including the necessary training before liftoff, is between $100,000 and $200,000.
Visit To The International Space Station
If money is no object and you are looking for a more ambitious journey, however, than sub-orbiting the earth, you might be interest in knowing that a small number of people are undergoing about six months of extensive cosmonaut training and survival classes in preparation to a visit via Soyuz rockets to the International Space Station. After all of this preparation, passengers will actually stay at the Space Station for only about one to two weeks. These trips are also arranged by Space Adventures.
The cost to visit the International Space Station, including preparation, is between $20 million and $30 million a person.
Ticket To The Moon
While the cost of visiting the International Space Station is well beyond the means of most people, for the most elite group, Space Adventures is currently planning on selling tickets for a more expensive journey, which will go all of the way to the moon. While this option isn’t currently accessible yet, the details are indeed underway to make such a vacation possible for a few of the wealthiest people in the world.
Of course keep in mind that the logistics are more complicated than sub-orbiting the earth or landing at the space station. In part this is because the journey will necessitate two separate launches, one of the Soyuz space ship and one of a booster rocket that the Soyuz will need to attach to when it reaches low Earth orbit. It is also important to note that at this point, such a journey will likely be a planned lunar flyby, rather than a full orbit of the moon, because this will be the most cost-effective use of fuel that will be needed for this mission.
The price for a ticket to the moon is currently estimated at between $100 and $200 million.