Space Tourism Has Arrived In Force

Space tourism has arrived in force, with multiple companies competing to propel you into the heavens.

- Michael Verdon

IN 1968, PAN AM started taking reservations for a shuttle to the moon. By the time the programme was discontinued three years later, more than 90,000 signatures had been collected. The stunt ignited the dream that civilians could travel into space, but it took reality 53 years to catch up when, in July, Sir Richard Branson and Amazon founder Jeff Bezos each became a passenger aboard his own respective spacecraft. Upping the ante last month, 38-year-old billionaire Jared Isaacman, founder of Shift4 Payments and an accomplished pilot, captained a multi-day orbital expedition aboard Elon Musk’s Crew Dragon capsule, helmed by four civilians and zero professional astronauts. The name of the mission: Inspiration4.

Surging with adrenaline after returning from his 10-minute rocket ride aboard New Shepard, Bezos likened space tourism to the barnstorming pilots of a century ago. “We’re selling a few rides here and there, but it will eventually lead to the equivalent of flying 787s,” he said. “We’re in the first small steps of something big.”