Space Tourism

Space is an attractive tourism resource. In the early 1960s, the Soviet astronaut Yuri Gagarin travelled outside the Earth by spacecraft and was impressed by the beauty of the Earth and Moon. In the early 1980s, the royal prince of Saudi Arabia travelled to space at his own expense. Scientists from various countries have visited space using spacecraft and space shuttles to conduct scientific experiments. The United States Seattle Space Exploration Company began organising space tours in 1993. A typical trip will consist of flying 5–8 orbits around the Earth and will last for 8–12 h. Approximately 250 people have made reservations by paying $52,220 each. The US space travel company Virgin Galactic’s spacecraft was tested successfully in October 2010 and began their private space tourism business at end of 2011. In 2003, China launched the Divine 5 and 6 manned spacecraft. Since then, many countries have started to compete in the potentially large space tourism market.