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| Sierra Nevada Corp Dream Chaser |
Orbital space tourism is a niche industry at the moment, but business could really boom if costs come down by a couple of orders of magnitude, a new study asserts. To date, only seven people -- beginning with multimillionaire businessman Dennis Tito in April 2001-- have paid to launch into Earth orbit, and they've reportedly plunked down between $20 million and $35 million for the experience. Those are not the numbers of a thriving industry. But things could change dramatically if prices drop significantly -- down to about $500,000 per seat or so. That reduced rate could lure in hundreds of thousands of customers for orbital tourist trips, potentially generating revenues in excess of $100 billion per year, according to the study.
Just last week, for example, the space agency doled out nearly $270 million to four companies — Blue Origin, Boeing, Sierra Nevada Corp. and Space Exploration Technologies (SpaceX) — for this very purpose. NASA wants private industry to start carrying cargo and crew to space as soon as possible, in the wake of the space shuttle program's retirement later this year. This new race to orbital space could help drive costs down substantially, through competition and the development of new, more efficient techologies. But only time will tell if prices drop -- and if so, how much and how fast.
Still, all signs point toward the dawn of a new era in human spaceflight, experts say. NASA's effort to encourage private companies to develop their capabilities could open the heavens to more and more folks who don't have $30 million lying around. Space.com
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