Space Tourism

We're now one step closer to seeing tourists making balloon flights to the edge of outer space. Just last week, Florida company Space Perspective sent a balloon-lifted test capsule to the outer limits of our planet's atmosphere, followed by a successful splashdown landing.

After five days in orbit, the Polaris Dawn mission, which conducted the world's first commercial spacewalk, has returned safely to Earth. At 3:36 am EDT, the Dragon capsule Resilience splashed down off the coast of the Dry Tortugas, Florida.

Having completed its first day in orbit, the Polaris Dawn mission is preparing to make the first private spacewalk in history. Two astronauts are scheduled to exit the Dragon spacecraft Resilience at 2:23 am EDT and here's how to watch.

SpaceX's Polaris Dawn, the first private space mission to include a spacewalk, is scheduled to lift off on Wednesday, August 28 at 3:38 am EDT from Launch Complex 39A at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida. Here's how to watch.

Not content with sending tourists into space as a general destination, SpaceX plans by the end of the year to send a private space expedition, called Fram2, aboard a Dragon spacecraft on the first crewed mission to travel over the Earth's poles.

Paying passengers could be flying to the edge of space as soon as next year, but not with the company you might think. Spain's EOS-X Space has announced that it's nearing finalization of a capsule that will be hoisted heavenward by a giant balloon.

Thanks to Albert Einstein, the US Government wants to establish an official time zone for the Moon. It has less to do with jet lag and more to do with how gravity affects time and can throw a lot of very precise technologies seriously off track.

2023 turned out to be a busy year in space and the general vicinity. New Atlas looks back at everything from rocket launches and cosmic tsunamis to asteroid samples and the latest astronaut fashions.

When someone says they're planning on using a balloon to take tourists to the edge of space, you may wonder if they'll ever get past the conceptual stage. Space Perspective has gotten past it, by building a physical test model of its Neptune capsule.

After many years of delays, Virgin Galactic has carried its first tourist passengers to the edge of space, including British former Olympiad Jon Goodwin, and Keisha Schahaff and Anastatia Mayers, a mother and daughter from Antigua and Barbuda.

After years of setbacks, Virgin Galactic has completed its first commercial flight, which saw it carry 13 research payloads and three passengers from the Italian Air Force and National Research Council of Italy to the edge of space.

After Virgin Orbit vanished in bankruptcy court, Virgin Galactic announced its first spaceflight in two years as the Unity 25 mission rocketed to an altitude of 54.2 miles (87.2 km) on May 25, 2023 in the skies over Spaceport America, New Mexico.