Spaceflights For Tourists Could Be An Everyday Reality By 2030

The era of the space tourist has already begun. After what has seemed like an interminable wait, all three of the main privately owned space companies have made their inaugural flights.

Jeff Bezos’s Blue Origin and Richard Branson’s Virgin Galactic have both sent their owners and several mostly wealthy fellow passengers to space, if only briefly. Elon Musk’s SpaceX Dragon spacecraft ventured even further. It sent its all civilian crew into Earth orbit, completing more than forty circuits over its three day mission.

This represents impressive progress, but for most people it all still seems a bit remote: an ambition for the ultra-wealthy only. Not only that, but you have to travel to America before you can even reach the launch pad.

What about the rest of us? Well, in terms of the price, the cost of a ticket to space will definitely come down. The intrepid trio are just the first of several companies vying to make regular tourist trips to space. There are other organisations with advanced plans for their own space stations and orbital hotels to welcome adventurous guests. Less expensive balloon rides to space are also in prospect through innovative competitors like Space Perspective.

So whilst space travel will be reserved for the rich for a few years yet, the price should come down from billionaire level to millionaire very soon. Over the longer term, say a decade, prices will come down further – just like the price of trans-Atlantic air travel became affordable to far more people in the 1970s. By the early 2030s, the variety of alternative options and the sheer number of launches will far exceed the limited flights available today. This brings the probability that space flights could become an affordable reality for millions.

And you won’t have to live in the United States either. Balloon flights to space can be launched from just about anywhere in the world. The only likely limitation is that the launch site must be within a few hundred miles of an ocean, so that it can safely splash down on landing.

European Spaceports – The Race To Launch Into Space

Spaceports are being planned all across the world. Russia already has several possible launch sites, and numerous other countries are rapidly expanding their launch facilities.

In Europe, spaceport development is really taking off. The European Space Agency (ESA) continues to use France’s facilities in French Guiana, situated on the South American coast, just north of Brazil. Portugal is also planning a spaceport on the Azores, its chain of islands situated in the Atlantic Ocean, around 1400 km (900 miles) off the Portuguese coast.

But there will soon be no shortage of spaceports based actually on the European continent. Several countries have their own designs planned, and many are already under construction.

Germany has announced plans for a new space port near Nordholz, on its North Sea coast. Italy has signed agreements with both the US government and Virgin Galactic to build its own facilities, while Sweden’s plans are even more advanced. It has already begun work on its new facilities in Kiruna, near the Arctic Circle. Launches are planned to begin in 2022.

But it is the United Kingdom which is the clear leader in the European spaceport race. Indeed, Scotland alone has plans for four, with construction underway near Campbeltown, Sutherland, the Shetland Isles and on Uist in the Outer Hebrides. All are scheduled for completion by 2025, with Sutherland and the Shetland Isles are planned to be operational as early as 2022. Meanwhile, Wales has its own plans for Spaceport Snowdonia.

Perhaps most exciting of all are the prospects of a Spaceport Cornwall. This will be an upgrade to the existing airport at Newquay, with a 2,744 metre runway also facilitating horizontal launches such as those used by Virgin Galactic. This too, is expected to be operational in 2022.

Furthermore, as a further indication of intent, the UK and US governments have agreed a deal in June 2020, which allows US companies to operate and launch from the UK. Richard Branson has already committed to using the new spaceport for his Virgin Orbit satellite launches, with Virgin Galactic sure to follow.

The Future of Spaceports

In the short term, flights to space are likely to remain a possibility for the wealthy only. But more and more companies are planning their own services in addition to the original vanguard of Blue Origin, SpaceX and Virgin Galactic. Competition and economies of scale are sure to drive down prices over the next decade.

And with spaceports opening up all over the world, there are likely to be opportunities to reach space without having to travel thousands of miles to get to the launch site in the first place. This is especially the case in Europe, where there could be a new spaceport within relatively easy reach wherever you live, by the mid-2020s.

The dream of millions is getting ever closer to a reality…