Space Tourism

With a judging panel made up of former NASA astronauts, industry experts, space enthusiasts, and others, a competition being run by Spaceship Earth Grants (SEG) aims to give away one space flight for every 50,000 applications it receives.

Arizona-based World View Enterprises has successfully completed its first test flight of a space tourism balloon that, for the price of US$75,000 per person, will lift six passengers into the stratosphere to an altitude of 20 miles (32 km).

With a projected settlement date of 2025, the Mars One project has received over 200,000 applications for the one way trip to the Red Planet. Bryan Versteeg is a conceptual designer who’s been working with the Mars One team in anticipation of the planet’s eventual colonization.

Individuals who dream of becoming astronauts will soon be able to buy training for exactly that purpose. Spaceflight training provider Waypoint 2 Space has been awarded safety approval by the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) for its training programs that are due to begin this year.

World View Enterprises is making a foray into the fledgling space (or near-space) tourism sector that will see passengers take a balloon ride to an altitude of 30 km (18.6 mi) from where they will be treated to a spectacular view of the Earth.

PayPal is teaming with the SETI Institute and the Space Tourism Society to brainstorm how to extend the PayPal brand across the Solar System.

Virgin Galactic's SpaceShipTwo today successfully completed its first powered flight.

SpaceShipTwo's latest test flight provided quite a spectacle with oxidizer flowing through the craft’s propulsion system and expelled through the nozzle at its rear to produce a contrail across the Mojave Desert sky.

A test flight on Wednesday morning saw SpaceShipTwo's nitrous loading and venting systems tested for the first time.

Virgin Galactic’s SpaceShipTwo completed its 23rd guide flight this week, which also marked the spaceplane’s first flight in powered flight configuration.

Richard Branson today set out the roadmap for Virgin Galactic's immediate future by announcing plans to put small satellites into orbit.

After an almost nine month break Virgin Galactic's SpaceShipTwo (SS2) spaceplane is back in the air, successfully completing its 17th glide flight test last week.