All the Ways You Can Go to Space: Commercial, Government, and Emerging Opportunities
In July 2021, Virgin Galactic’s SpaceShipTwo carried a full crew above 80 km. In 2023, Virgin Galactic began commercial service for private space tourists. Blue Origin’s New Shepard suborbital flights cross the Kármán line at about 100 km and last 10–15 minutes. The first Blue Origin seat was auctioned for $28 million, with routine prices in the few hundred-thousand-dollar range. SpaceX’s Inspiration4 mission in September 2021 was the first all-civilian orbital flight, with a four-person crew trained for about six months. Axiom Space’s Ax-1 mission in April 2022 carried three private customers paying about $55 million per seat for a
