Space tourism
Human space travel for recreation
Follow Space tourism on Notably News to receive short updates to your email — rarely!
We include updates on Blue Origin, New Glenn, Virgin Galactic, Scaled Composites Stratolaunch, VSS Enterprise, New Shepard, DearMoon project, Orbital Reef, Axiom Orbital Segment, Haven-1, Blue Origin NS-26, Galactic 07, VSS Unity, Redwire, Blue Origin NS-16, Scaled Composites Tier One ... and more.
| April 14 2025 |
New Shepard
Blue Origin completed a successful sub-orbital crewed mission (NS-31) with 6 women: Gayle King, Katy Perry, Amanda Nguyen, Aisha Bowe, Lauren Sanchez, and Kerianne Flynn. The flight reached a peak altitude of 106 km and lasted 10 minutes and 21 seconds.
|
| April 1 2025 | Fram2 became the first crewed spaceflight to enter a polar retrograde orbit, launched on a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket. |
| March 31 2025 |
New Glenn
Completion of mishap investigation into the atmospheric reentry of the New Glenn booster, conducted by Blue Origin with FAA review.
|
| February 2025 | Estimated ticket price for a seat reached approximately $600,000. |
| February 25 2025 | Blue Origin's 10th human flight lifts off with six paying passengers, including a Spanish TV host and investors, experiencing weightlessness during a 10-12 minute flight. |
| February 25 2025 |
New Shepard
Tenth crewed flight (NS-30) successfully launched.
|
| February 25 2025 |
New Shepard
Tenth crewed New Shepard flight with six crew members: Lane Bess, Jesús Calleja, Tushar Shah, Richard Scott, Elaine Chia Hyde, and Russell Wilson (Launch No. 30).
|
| February 25 2025 |
RSS First Step
Space tourism mission NS-30, tenth crewed flight of New Shepard, mission lasted 10 minutes and 8 seconds.
|
| February 25 2025 | Blue Origin launched its 10th space tourism mission with New Shepard, sending six paying passengers to suborbital space. |
| 2025 | Virgin Galactic plans to begin testing its third generation Delta-class spaceship, designed for higher production volumes and functionally similar to the SpaceShip III class. |
| February 4 2025 |
New Shepard
An uncrewed New Shepard rocket (NS-29 mission) was launched, intending to carry approximately 30 moon-related technologies.
|
| February 4 2025 |
New Shepard
Uncrewed NASA research mission simulating lunar gravity by spinning the capsule at 11 rpm, carrying 30 payloads (29 internal, one external) (Launch No. 29).
|
| January 16 2025 |
New Glenn
New Glenn completed its maiden flight, carrying a prototype Blue Ring spacecraft and marking the first launch from LC-36 since NROL-23 in 2005. This mission served as the first of several demonstration launches for National Security Space Launch program certification.
|
| January 16 2025 | Blue Origin reached orbit with the first launch of the New Glenn vehicle. |
| January 13 2025 |
New Glenn
First launch attempt of New Glenn, which was scrubbed at approximately 3:05 AM EST due to countdown issues.
|
| 2024 |
SpaceX Mars colonization program
Elon Musk states that local resource utilization would be essential for establishing a self-sustaining Mars colony, with an aim to achieve self-sufficiency in seven to nine years.
|
| 2024 | Blue Origin announced successful completion of initial acceptance testing on the thrusters for the MK1 variant of the Blue Moon lander. |
| 2024 | Blue Origin won its first National Security Space Launch (NSSL) contract for New Glenn vehicle launches. |
| 2024 | NASA increased funding for the Orbital Reef commercial space station project by $42 million, bringing the total award to $172 million. |
| December 27 2024 |
New Glenn
24-second static fire test performed on the New Glenn vehicle.
|
| December 19 2024 |
New Glenn
Full wet dress rehearsal conducted for New Glenn launch vehicle.
|
| November 2024 |
New Glenn
AST SpaceMobile selected Blue Origin to launch some of its Block 2 satellites using New Glenn.
|
| November 22 2024 |
New Shepard
Ninth crewed flight (NS-28) successfully launched.
|
| November 22 2024 |
New Shepard
Ninth crewed New Shepard flight with six crew members: Emily Calandrelli, Sharon Hagle, Marc Hagle, Austin Litteral, James Russell, and Henry Wolfond (Launch No. 28).
|
| November 20 2024 |
New Glenn
Flight 1 vehicle moved to the launchpad for static fire testing.
|
| October 2024 |
New Shepard
National Air and Space Museum announced that Blue Origin donated NS4 to be displayed in the museum.
|
| October 2024 | Axiom Space plans to launch its fourth mission to the International Space Station. |
| October 23 2024 |
New Shepard
First flight of Propulsion Module NS5 and capsule RSS Kármán Line, carrying 12 payloads and thousands of Club for the Future postcards (Launch No. 27).
|
| September 12 2024 | Jared Isaacman and Sarah Gillis performed the first commercial spacewalk during the Polaris Dawn spaceflight operated by SpaceX. |
| September 7 2024 |
SpaceX Mars colonization program
SpaceX announces plans to launch first uncrewed Starship missions to Mars by 2026, with five Starships planned to test reliable landing capabilities.
|
| August 29 2024 |
New Shepard
Eighth crewed flight (NS-26) carried NASA-funded scientist Rob Ferl, who performed scientific experiments, becoming the first NASA-funded researcher on a commercial suborbital space vehicle.
|
| August 29 2024 |
New Shepard
Eighth crewed New Shepard flight with six crew members: Ephraim Rabin, Nicolina Elrick, Eugene Grin, Rob Ferl, Karsen Kitchen, and Eiman Jahangir (Launch No. 26).
|
| July 9 2024 | First flight of Ariane 6 launch vehicle, representing a new generation of more cost-effective launchers. |
| June 2024 |
SpaceShip III
Development of the two SpaceShip III vehicles, VSS Imagine and VSS Inspire, was canceled. The vehicles were intended to be used for ground testing and development of the successor Delta-class spacecraft.
|
| June 2024 | Virgin Galactic halted commercial flights of the VSS Unity spaceplane to concentrate on developing the next-generation Delta-class spacecraft, marking a strategic pivot in their space tourism operations. |
| June 8 2024 |
SpaceShipTwo
Galactic 07 was the final flight of VSS Unity.
|
| June 8 2024 |
Galactic 07
Galactic 07 was launched as the seventh commercial spaceflight and twelfth overall spaceflight for Virgin Galactic, utilizing the SpaceShipTwo-class VSS Unity spacecraft. This was the final launch of the Unity spacecraft.
|
| June 1 2024 |
DearMoon project
Yusaku Maezawa officially cancelled the DearMoon project due to ongoing Starship developmental delays, announced on the project website and X (formerly Twitter). The cancellation notice explained that launch scheduling became unfeasible and there was no clear near-term timeline for the mission.
|
| June 1 2024 |
Tourism on the Moon
The #dearMoon project was fully cancelled following broader Starship program delays.
|
| June 1 2024 | SpaceX cancelled its planned lunar tourism project with Yusaku Maezawa, which was originally announced in 2018. |
| May 2024 |
New Glenn
NASA announced ESCAPADE spacecraft reached substantial completion, but subsequently moved the payload to a later New Glenn flight.
|
| May 2024 |
DearMoon project
Maezawa unilaterally cancelled the DearMoon project due to significant delays in Starship development and a halving of his personal net worth since the 2018 announcement.
|
| May 19 2024 |
New Shepard
Seventh crewed flight (NS-25) included Ed Dwight, the first African-American astronaut candidate, who became the oldest man to reach space.
|
| May 19 2024 |
New Shepard
Seventh crewed New Shepard flight with six crew members: Kenneth Hess, Sylvain Chiron, Mason Angel, Ed Dwight, Carol Schaller, and Gopi Thotakura (Launch No. 25).
|
| March 2024 | Blue Origin partnered with the United States Space Force to test Blue Ring's capabilities on the upcoming DarkSky-1 mission. |
| February 2024 |
New Glenn
The inaugural New Glenn vehicle was unveiled on the launch pad.
|
| February 21 2024 | The full New Glenn vehicle was first unveiled on a launch pad. |
| January 2024 | Axiom Space completes its third Crew Dragon mission to the International Space Station. |
| January 8 2024 | Vulcan Centaur launched for the first time, successfully carrying Astrobotic Technology's Peregrine lunar lander, marking the first NASA Commercial Lunar Payload Services (CLPS) mission using the BE-4 engine. |
| 2023 |
DearMoon project
Initial planned launch year for the DearMoon project, which was ultimately delayed due to SpaceX Starship development challenges.
|
|
We are only showing the most recent entries for this topic. |
|
This contents of the box above is based on material from the Wikipedia articles Tourism on the Moon, New Glenn, Galactic 07, SpaceShipTwo, SpaceX Mars colonization program, Blue Origin, RSS First Step, Arianespace, SpaceShip III, Space tourism, New Shepard, DearMoon project & Virgin Galactic, which are released under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.