Exploring Space For Wealthy Tourists

or some of you who are space enthusiast and are queuing up for a possible space tour – in about a year or two, you could be on your way for a possible space visit, provided you can cough out $200,000. This is definitely going to be a thing for the wealthy, as not many people can part ways with such amount of money.

Recent survey reveals that just around 500 people have ever left the Earth’s atmosphere, but forecast suggests that this number could spiral soon. This can be attributed to NASA winding down its operations in a bid to fund the private sector in a multimillion-dollar Space Act Agreement. This has sparked off a flurry of activity within the billionaire investor’s community.

In 2001 a millionaire named Dennis Tito spent close to $20 million and has since opened the way for space tourism.Africa’s first space tourist, a young South African, Mark Shuttleworth, an internet mogul is believed to have also spent around the same amount, Dennis paid for his space tour.

The ride to space is definitely a thing for the wealthy folks, though it’s ever becoming a dream come true with the right financial strength and not just a thing for the highly-trained astronauts.

A spacecraft called Skylon has been designed and built by the UK Space agency. It is a reusable, pilotless plane, with a capacity of around twenty four. Boeing also has joined the queue with a company called Space Adventures that has already sent a handful of rich private citizens to a space station – with a seat costing around $40 million.

There’s also the Virgin Galactic ship that could take up to six passengers, along with one or two crew members, which would be due for operation in 2013. A seat price would go for $200,000. There’s a better option in terms of cost in the Lynx Mark II, from the XCOR Aerospace, with a seat possibly going for $95,000.

A 10-Year Forecast of Market Demand was carried out to examine rich people’s interest in space travel and their pattern for spending. It is expected that their interest in space travel is likely to rise by 2% annually, just as the rate of the world’s wealthy population.

We can only look to the future and hope for the best, but for now all indications are clear on the fact that space travel is a thing for the very rich in our society today.