Space tourism: What are the pros and cons?

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Space tourism has its fans — and its critics.

A rocket flies into space.
Photo of a Blue Origin New Shepard rocket launching the NS-20 space tourist mission in March 2022. (Image credit: Blue Origin)

Private companies are offering many opportunities to make the leap off Earth, ranging from a quick suborbital hop to a multi month stay on the International Space Station (ISS). But the advent of the space tourism industry has spurred a vigorous debate: Is it helping to propel humanity to the stars, or is it just letting rich people have a little fun while providing no real value?

Here's a look at the pros and cons of space tourism.

Related: How SpaceShipOne's historic launch 20 years ago paved the way for a new space tourism era

The pros of space tourism

A handful of private individuals, colloquially known as space tourists,  managed to purchase tickets to the ISS or Russia's Mir station. However, with the end of the space shuttle program in 2011, NASA canceled any further opportunities. That picture changed with the emergence of private spaceflight companies headed by various billionaires, including Elon Musk's SpaceX, Jeff Bezos' Blue Origin and Richard Branson's Virgin Galactic.

Of the three, only Virgin Galactic has a stated long-term goal of promoting space tourism, offering quick suborbital flights just above the Kármán line — the arbitrary but internationally recognized edge of space. Paying customers can get a similar experience with Blue Origin, but that company hopes to pivot to orbital industries. With SpaceX, you can get a multiday stay in orbit, but you'll have to bid against numerous government contracts for the opportunity.

An interior view of a Virgin Galactic Spaceship with Earth seen through its windows. (Image credit: Virgin Galactic)

Promoters of space tourism have suggested various benefits of the industry. For example, many space tourists are actively running and participating in experiments, such as examining the effects of microgravity on human health, plant growth and material properties. This is real science that needs to be done to propel humanity to the stars.

There's also financial propulsion, with hundreds of millions of dollars of investment going into the newfound industry. Companies are developing new equipment, techniques, technologies and more so they can offer tickets to space. And the more we invest in space in general, the better off our shared ventures will be.

The frequent launches of space tourists, including celebrities such as William Shatner, have caught the media by storm. This, in turn, fuels more public interest, which can lead to more discussion, more awareness and more funding.

The cons of space tourism

On the other hand, critics of space tourism point out that the industry is catering solely to exceptionally wealthy individuals. Ironically, this can lead to a sense of public disillusionment with space: Instead of opening it up to everyone, it might cause people to roll their eyes at the inaccessibility. Basically, it's just rich people doing rich-people things.

Because of the enormous cost of a ticket — anywhere from hundreds of thousands to tens of millions of dollars — it's hard for most people to see the value in space tourism as an industry. They simply don't get to participate in it. 

And while some space tourists have conducted experiments during their expeditions, those experiments haven't exactly been revolutionary or consisted of anything that couldn't be done by astronauts on the ISS. So space tourism isn't really advancing human spaceflight in any significant way.

Lastly, space tourism is a niche business. While some companies have developed technologies that are specific to this industry, those technologies will not necessarily transfer to other space-related activities, like industrial or scientific applications. We could be spending all this time, money and resources on a business venture that never grows significantly and never leads to anything else.

Three Italian space tourists aboard the Virgin Galactic SpaceShipTwo space plane. (Image credit: Virgin Galactic)

The bottom line

The bottom line is that space is hard — it's difficult to get to space, and it's difficult for humans to remain in space for any length of time. Most space tourism companies have folded well before their first attempted launch, and it's not clear that this business niche will grow all that much. Only roughly 60 people have been to space as tourists, and the vast majority of them have gone only on quick suborbital joyrides with a few minutes of weightlessness. 

There are only a few launches, at most, every year dedicated to space tourism, and a peek at planned launch schedules reveals that this number will not change much over the coming years.

Related Stories:

—Do space tourists really understand the risk they're taking?

—The rise of space tourism could affect Earth's climate in unforeseen ways, scientists worry

—Most Americans expect routine space tourism by 2073, but few would actually try it 

Most people will never get the opportunity to become a space tourist; it will likely remain a niche industry serving a select set of very wealthy individuals. It's not a game changer in any direction. It will continue to be a component of the overall human interest in space but not a major driver of innovation or expansion.

But hey, if you're ever given the chance, go for it!

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Paul Sutter
Paul Sutter
Space.com Contributor

Paul M. Sutter is an astrophysicist at SUNY Stony Brook and the Flatiron Institute in New York City. Paul received his PhD in Physics from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign in 2011, and spent three years at the Paris Institute of Astrophysics, followed by a research fellowship in Trieste, Italy, His research focuses on many diverse topics, from the emptiest regions of the universe to the earliest moments of the Big Bang to the hunt for the first stars. As an "Agent to the Stars," Paul has passionately engaged the public in science outreach for several years. He is the host of the popular "Ask a Spaceman!" podcast, author of "Your Place in the Universe" and "How to Die in Space" and he frequently appears on TV — including on The Weather Channel, for which he serves as Official Space Specialist.

5 Comments Comment from the forums
  • GregB03
    In its early days aviation was something that only the rich could afford to do. It took a while for it to reach prices that were affordable to the general population . It's early days for commercial space travel.
    Reply
  • Osbert
    GregB03 said:
    In its early days aviation was something that only the rich could afford to do. It took a while for it to reach prices that were affordable to the general population . It's early days for commercial space travel.
    If these people were going someplace, I might agree with you but UP and then free-falling, is not a "destination". It's not a destination if you arrive, basically where you started from. Let's start launching people UP and over/out too actually land some place >> because they wanted to get to that/some place. Also, UP and freefall is not space travel. Far from it, lol. It's a fair/carnival ride - period. Nothing but an uncontrollable joy-ride in a tin-can - WEEeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee!!!!
    Reply
  • GregB03
    Osbert said:
    If these people were going someplace, I might agree with you but UP and then free-falling, is not a "destination". It's not a destination if you arrive, basically where you started from. Let's start launching people UP and over/out too actually land some place >> because they wanted to get to that/some place. Also, UP and freefall is not space travel. Far from it, lol. It's a fair/carnival ride - period. Nothing but an uncontrollable joy-ride in a tin-can - WEEeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee!!!!
    There are plans to build commercial space stations to take the place of the ISS. Axiom Space is building a modular commercial space station that will be attached to the ISS and when completed, at some point before the ISS deorbits, will detach and become an independent space station. Space access costs are a big factor in what we can do in space. Bringing down space access costs is part of the reason why SpaceX is developing the Starship/Super Heavy.
    *
    Robert Goddard, who played a major role in modern rocketry, too often was ridiculed by those who didn't see the future implications of his work. One example of this was a January 13, 1920 New York Times editorial. Unlike the people of Goddard's time I'm willing to give the commercial space efforts a chance to see what they can come up with.
    Reply
  • ChrisA
    GregB03 said:
    In its early days aviation was something that only the rich could afford to do. It took a while for it to reach prices that were affordable to the general population . It's early days for commercial space travel.
    The Writght brothers were not rich. Their dad was a preacher and they owned a bicycle shop. In the early days, the people in the field were skilled tradesmen. The first passenger to die was a young army officer.

    But later when aviation was commercialized, yes ticket prices were high
    Reply
  • GregB03
    ChrisA said:
    The Writght brothers were not rich. Their dad was a preacher and they owned a bicycle shop. In the early days, the people in the field were skilled tradesmen. The first passenger to die was a young army officer.

    But later when aviation was commercialized, yes ticket prices were high
    Yes, I should have said commercial aviation in my initial post. The Wright brothers were followed by the military use of airplanes and the barnstorming era. One of the earliest uses of airplanes was air mail.
    *
    The Blue Origin New Shepard and the Virgin Galactic space plane suborbital rides could be considered to be similar to the barnstorming era of aviation. It will be interesting to see how commercial space develops in the future.
    Reply