Space tourism: what is it?

For simplicity, space tourism is a term that encompasses a variety of private activities in orbit. It is to be differentiated from suborbital tourism. While the latter is content to cross a brief moment, generally a few minutes, one of the three borders recognized space tourism, space tourism consists of flying into space and orbiting around the Earth for several days.

At first glance, one might think that the space tourist concerns “simple wealthy vacationers” who treat themselves to short leisure stays in orbit. But each of the “tourists” who were able to stay on board the international space station or capsule Crew Dragon of SpaceX wanted to give meaning to its space escapade by carrying out a “scientific” program ofearth observation, technological demonstration or experiments. Admittedly, these are minimal programs but with an undeniable scientific return.

An activity that is only in its infancy

This activity began in 2001 with the stay of Dennis Tito aboard the Space Station at a cost of approximately 20 million dollars. Seven other people will follow, including Charles Simonyi who flew twice in 2007 and 2009, and the first female space tourist, American-Iranian Anousheh Ansari. The last space tourist of this era will be the Canadian billionaire Guy Lalibertéfounder of the Cirque du Sun, returned to Earth in October 2009 after eleven days in space. He did not wish to reveal the amount of his ticket, estimated at 40 million dollars. But we know that its predecessor, Charles Simonyipaid $35 million in 2009, after shelling out $25 million for his first space trip.

The arrival of SpaceX on the private manned flight market has revived this activity. First, by freeing up places on board the Soyuz Russian, which allows Space Adventures to resume the marketing of manned flights to the ISS (stopped since the withdrawal of the shuttle in June 2011). Then, by marketing his Crew Dragon to individuals, like Jared Issacman with the Inspiration 4 mission, then on board a Starship during Yusaku Maezawa’s Dear Moon mission, around the Moon.

If the costs are still around several million dollars, we can still point out that SpaceX allows a slight democratization of space tourism. The Nasa recently set the cost of the night on board the ship at $35,000. orbital complex per person which includes food, water, toilets and all life support system on board. As for Space Adventures, after having relaunched flights on board the ISS at the end of 2021 with the Japanese mission Yusaku Maezawa, it is preparing for 2023 a new tourist stay on board the ISS but with an unprecedented option: an outing in the space from the orbital complex! For the time being, no names of potential customers have been revealed.

Cinema movie scenes shot aboard the ISS

Among the “tourist” activities carried out on board the International Space Station, mention should be made of filming scenes for cinema films. After the stay in October 2021 of theRussian actress Yulia Peresild and Russian director Klim Shipenkoto shoot several scenes of the film “ The Challenge »Scheduled for release in late 2022, Tom Cruise is also expected to shoot scenes aboard the ISS and the Axiom orbital segment. With director Doug Liman, the two Americans should join the orbital complex as part of a Axiom mission in 2024.