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Astronauts photographing Earth through the ISS Cupola — a panoramic view of our planet from orbit
TRIPS TO SPACE · UPDATED DAILY

The Future of Travel
Is Above Us

What space tourism costs in 2026, who’s flying, and how to plan your own trip to space.

12
Operators
2
Flying now
$50K
Seats from
SPACE NEWS WE TRACK SpaceNews Space.com NASA The Verge Ars Technica Spaceflight Now
Independent by design. No ads, and no operator pays for placement. Every price and status on this page is compiled from primary sources, dated, and re-checked as the market moves. Our gear guides carry affiliate links — those never decide a pick, and your price is the same.
How we source & verify ›
$75B
SpaceX IPO — Largest in History
IPO priced June 2026, ahead of Saudi Aramco
$1T+
Projected Space Economy by 2040
Morgan Stanley projection — matched by Citi
700+
Humans Flown to Space
Flown-astronaut records, 1961–2026
2026
The Tipping Point Year
Our read of the price data
What it costs · 2026

A seat to space used to cost a fortune. It’s in freefall.

Commercial spaceflight has gotten dramatically cheaper — and it’s still falling.

A seat starts at
~$150,000
↓ And still falling
2001
2026
2032
$20M
Dennis Tito’s seat — the first private astronaut
~$150K
The cheapest seat selling today
~$50K*
Projected, if the curve holds
*2032 is a projection, not a fare. The full price history lives in the price index.
LIVE STATUS · September 11, 2026

Who’s flying right now

Full price index & history →

All 12 operator statuses were re-verified against their sources on September 7, 2026. Each card is also stamped with its own re-check date, so you can see how current every row is — not just the page.

BookableVerified 2026-09-07
Axiom Space
Orbital / ISS
~$55M
BookableVerified 2026-09-07
SpaceX
Orbital free-flight
Whole-capsule charter
Returns Feb 2027Verified 2026-09-07
Virgin Galactic
Suborbital
$750K
Targeting 2026Verified 2026-09-07
Zephalto
Stratospheric balloon
~$195K
Targeting 2027Verified 2026-09-07
Vast Space
Orbital / commercial station
By quote
Targeting 2027Verified 2026-09-07
Deep Blue Aerospace
Suborbital
~$210K
Crewed tests 2027Verified 2026-09-07
Halo Space
Stratospheric balloon
~$164K (2024 est.)
Targeting 2028Verified 2026-09-07
InterstellOr
Suborbital
~$430K
~20–30 min (target)CGTN / en.interstellor.com
Paused · est. 2028Verified 2026-09-07
Blue Origin
Suborbital
~$150K–$450K*
PausedVerified 2026-09-07
Space Perspective
Stratospheric balloon
~$125K
PausedVerified 2026-09-07
World View
Stratospheric balloon
$50K
DormantVerified 2026-09-07
Space Adventures
Orbital (broker)
Tens of $M
Independently researched · every figure sourced and dated. How we verify prices ›
WHY PEOPLE GO
New Shepard passengers floating at the crew capsule's oversized windows at the top of a suborbital flight
Passengers at the windows at the top of a New Shepard flight. Photo: Blue Origin, used with permission.

Ask anyone who’s been.

There is a name for what happens at the window — the overview effect, coined by the writer Frank White in 1987. You stop seeing a map of countries and start seeing one planet. Person after person comes back describing it as the part of the trip they were least prepared for.

“What you have given me is the most profound experience. I am so filled with emotion.”

William Shatner, photographed in 2023
William Shatner, 90
He said it to Bezos in the landing dust, minutes after climbing out.
Blue Origin NS-18 · October 13, 2021

“I’ve been waiting a long time to finally get up there… I could always beat the guys on what they were doing, because I was always stronger.”

Wally Funk laughing on stage at the Smithsonian in 2022
Wally Funk, 82 (1939–2026)
Mercury astronaut tests, 1961. Refused for being a woman. Flew sixty years later.
Blue Origin NS-16 · July 20, 2021

“That last view of the Earth from the cupola made me emotional… and I knew I’d be thinking about that for the rest of my life.”

Hayley Arceneaux, photographed at NASA’s Johnson Space Center in 2022
Hayley Arceneaux, 29
Survived bone cancer as a child. Flew to orbit with a prosthesis in her leg.
Inspiration4 · September 20, 2021
What it actually feels like →
Why now

For sixty years, space belonged to governments and billionaires. That just changed.

The price of a seat has fallen from tens of millions to the low hundreds of thousands. More than 700 people have already flown. Commercial stations, lunar loops, and a wave of new operators are under construction right now. The industry didn’t inch forward — it crossed a line. Outer Space Trip tracks both ends of it: what a seat costs today, and what you can see from your own backyard tonight.

$20M → ~$150K
Entry price for a seat, 2001 to today
12
Operators flying, returning, or building seats — tracked above
SEAT PRICES · 2026 ESTIMATE

What a seat costs

EXPERIENCE
TRAVELERS
1
WHO SELLS SEATS AT THIS TIER
ESTIMATED TOTAL
$150K – $750K
Rough 2026 estimate · not a quote. Fares are the operators’ own, re-verified weekly; we don’t sell seats.
How to book this trip → See the suborbital lineup for 2026 →
THE JOURNEY AHEAD

Four Tiers of Space Tourism

From minutes of weightlessness to months on Mars — here’s what the market looks like in 2026.

~100 KM
Kármán Line
01

Suborbital Flights

VG returns Feb 2027

3–4 minutes of weightlessness above the Kármán Line. Blue Origin’s New Shepard and Virgin Galactic’s SpaceShipTwo carried civilian passengers from 2021 — but Blue Origin paused New Shepard for at least two years in early 2026, leaving Virgin Galactic’s next-generation Delta service, expected in February 2027, as the nearer-term return.

From $150K–$750K
Virgin Galactic’s SpaceShipTwo in flight, carried aloft over Spaceport America
Photo: Jeff Foust · CC BY 2.0
~400 KM
Low Earth Orbit
02

Orbital Missions

Bookable

Days or weeks orbiting Earth aboard the ISS or a private station. Axiom Space has completed four crewed ISS missions; SpaceX Crew Dragon enables private astronaut programs — the premium tier of current space tourism.

From $35M–$55M+
A SpaceX Crew Dragon spacecraft approaching the International Space Station
Photo: NASA
384,000 KM
Cislunar
03

Lunar Experiences

Coming late 2020s

Flyby missions around the Moon and eventual surface excursions. NASA’s Artemis program is returning humans to the lunar surface. Private lunar tourism packages are entering pre-booking stages for the late 2020s.

From $100M+ (est.)
Astronaut Buzz Aldrin on the surface of the Moon during Apollo 11
Photo: NASA
225M KM
Interplanetary
04

Mars Glamping

Early 2030s

SpaceX’s Starship is designed for point-to-point Earth travel and eventual Mars missions. The first crewed Mars flights are targeting the early 2030s — and the tourism industry will follow within the decade.

Not yet priced
Mars, the interplanetary destination for the 2030s
Photo: NASA/JPL
FOR EVERY BUDGET

Experience Space Today

You don’t need a rocket — or a fortune. Real space experiences you can have right now, from a free launch view to floating in zero gravity.

Explore all experiences →
See Space Now · Tonight
New Moon
0% illuminated · September 11
Darkest skies of the month. This is the best window for faint targets — the Milky Way, meteor showers, galaxies and nebulae all show best now.
What’s up tonight →
Next sky event
September Equinox
September 23
SEE SPACE NOW

The gear that opens the sky

You don’t need a rocket — or a fortune. A $90 pair of binoculars shows Jupiter’s moons tonight. Here’s the gear actually worth the money, honestly reviewed.

SPACE TOURISM NEWS

Space Tourism Headlines

All articles →
LEAD STORY MOON

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SEPTEMBER 10, 2026 · NASA
SPCX · SpaceX · Nasdaq
$148.18 ▲ +0.8% today
SPACE TOURISM GUIDES

What It Costs, and How to Go

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What Space Costs, Every Week

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