“Space tourism” for more than 20 years of existence, did not get much development – the cost of “extraterrestrial tour” started from 30 million dollars. It was promoted as early as the end of the last century, but it was only in this century that it was possible to carry out commercial flights.
However, in 2025-2026, Blue Origin, Virgin Galactic, Axiom Space and others made a huge step in sending tourists beyond the Earth – noticeably lower prices. But only for suborbital flights. Thus, the cost of five minutes outside our planet amounted to about 300 thousand dollars. At the same time, the companies promised to continue to reduce the cost of traveling beyond the Earth.
The first space tourist – American businessman Dennis Tito – visited the International Space Station (ISS) in 2001. He traveled by Russian Soyuz spacecraft.
Those wishing to get out of the Earth, in addition to Tito, there are plenty. Several key players, including Roscosmos and private American companies, are involved in organizing flights to the ISS.
While Blue Origin and Virgin Galactic are engaged in suborbital flights, Roscosmos, Axiom Space, SpaceX and Space Adventures provide full orbital flights to the ISS. Moreover, the intermediary company Space Adventures (USA) has been working with Roscosmos for a long time, providing the sale of seats on Soyuz for space tourists.
Since 2022, the first named American companies have been independently organizing commercial private flights using SpaceX’s Crew Dragon spacecraft and Falcon 9 rocket for Axiom Space missions.
Welcome to space!
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Comparison of conditions (data for 2026) |
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Company / Agency |
Ship | Duration |
Approximate cost |
|
Roscosmos |
Soyuz MS | 10-12 days |
from 50-60 mln $ |
|
Axiom Space |
Crew Dragon | ~14 days |
from 50-55 mln $ |
|
SpaceX |
Crew Dragon | 3-5 days |
Varies by mission type |
