Space Tourism

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.

Space startup Vast has announced that it intends to launch what it calls the world's first commercial space station, Haven-1, sometime after August 2025 atop a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket as the first element of a 100-m (330 ft) rotating station.

Blue Origin and Sierra Space have revealed plans to place a commercially developed, owned, launched, and operated open-system architecture space station called Orbital Reef into low-Earth orbit between 2025 and 2030.

Lockheed Martin, Nanoracks, and Voyager Space have entered into a partnership to launch a permanently crewed commercial space station by 2027. Called Starlab, the semi-inflatable platform will be available to the US government and private industry.

Blue Origin has successfully completed its second human flight using its New Shepard launch vehicle, with the crew capsule safely touching down in the Texas desert on Wednesday afternoon local time with 90-year-old William Shatner on board.

Blood samples taken from Russian cosmonauts before and after long stints on the ISS have revealed elevations of biomarkers that could indicate brain damage, adding to a growing body of research highlighting the deleterious effects of space travel.

Blue Origin is gearing up for the second human flight of its New Shepard launch vehicle, and has just revealed the crew members that will be taking part including Captain Kirk himself, William Shatner.

Inspiration4, the first all-private crewed mission into space, has returned to Earth. The Crew Dragon capsule chartered by billionaire Jared Isaacman splashed down in the Atlantic Ocean off the coast of Florida after three days in orbit.

The Inspiration4 mission has lifted off atop a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket from Launch Complex 39A at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida. The mission differs from any previous crewed mission in that it is the first conducted entirely as a private venture.

Blue Origin has nailed the first human flight of New Shepard, taking company founder Jeff Bezos, his brother Mark, 82-year-old Mary Wallace "Wally" Funk and 18-year-old Oliver Daemen on a brief jaunt to space.

Blue Origin announced today that the fourth and final passenger on the first human flight of New Shepard is 18-year-old Oliver Daemen. Replacing the anonymous auction bidder who won the seat, Daemen will be the youngest person ever to fly into space.

British billionaire Sir Richard Branson almost, but not quite, flew into space today as a passenger aboard the privately built and operated Virgin Galactic spaceplane, VSS Unity, which took off from Spaceport America, New Mexico at about 10:30 am EDT.