Space tourism is a novel idea that may just become a common thing in the future. With the ongoing advances in space travel technology, it would only take some time before more and more people will be able to explore the "final frontier" for themselves while on their vacation.

It might be hard to believe today, but there are already people who try to advance the idea of space tourism and there are also the rich who try to take advantage of this opportunity first hand and go into space way before other people can.

Early History

Wide public access into space has become quite an interesting and attractive prospect for people who look for adventure and for those who can afford it. The idea has been played upon on the space programs in both the US and the Soviet Union then. The Soviet space program allowed cosmonauts selected from the Warsaw Pact members and then later from Soviet allies and non-aligned countries to become a part of their space missions.

The United States took it even further. While all the cosmonauts in Soviet space missions received the full cosmonaut training required for the program, the US space program later on included a payload specialist position on their space missions.

This post is usually reserved for representatives of companies or an institution that manages a specific payload for the space mission. The payload specialists do not receive the full training similar to what the NASA astronauts have to go through. They were not also employed by the NASA, so they are considered as private astronauts. This led on to other space programs that allowed other private citizens to become a part of later space missions.

Private Space Tourism

When the former Soviet Union began to falter during the 90's, its space program desperately needed cash to continue. Offers from private companies in other countries willing to provide some cash in exchange of having a representative to go with them.

This happened when Tokyo Broadcasting Company (TBS) offered to pay for one of its reporters to join up with the Mir space mission. In exchange for US$ 28 million, reporter Toyohiro Akiyama flew with the Mir crew into space in 1990 and returned a week later with the seventh crew.

Since this experience, the MirCorp was established as a private venture sometime at the end of the 90's to seek potential space tourists willing to pay for becoming part of a Mir space mission. But the company fizzled out for lack of financial backing. But before that, the venture was able to contract its first space tourist in Dennis Tito on June 19, 2000.

Although there other private citizens who went into previous space missions, it was Dennis Tito who paid for his own ticket into space, thereby officially being considered as the first space tourist. Tito eventually went into space on May 2001 with Space Adventures Ltd, the space tourism company that took the reins from MirCorp when it folded up.

The Future

Space tourism has been limited at present to the people who can afford the high ticket cost that amounts to millions of dollars. But research is underway into finding a way in which a commercial space craft that can be launched into space and then come back.

Other ambitious plans include building the first space hotel and the first space city where space tourists may be able to have the chance to visit and enjoy life in space.

Image Source: Wikipedia