Space holidays will soon be a real option for people willing to spend millions of euros: Space holidays future millions euros sector companies - these are the 4 companies currently leading the sector.

Before the pandemic, tourism and the travel industry were at their peak. In fact, in 2019 they contributed a total of 7.6 trillion euros (9.2 trillion dollars) to global GDP.

That amount, however, is limited only to the terrestrial sphere. Some companies have begun to invest huge amounts of time and money in what they already label as the new boom of an already extensive tourism market: space.

NASA helped roll out this idea of space tourism in 2019, when it opened the International Space Station to commercial businesses and private astronauts, giving potential tourists the opportunity to make a stop along the way.

Space holidays future millions euros sector companies

The movement reached the ears of companies such as Axiom Space, which became interested in the perspective of space tourism. But other companies such as Space Perspective, Zero2Infinity and The Gateway Foundation have kept the interest for much longer.

Axiom Space

In January of this year, Houston-based company Axiom Space announced that it would put its vice president and an entourage of three tourists aboard the Dragon spacecraft for an eight-day trip to the space station.

On June 2, shortly after the initial announcement, Axiom provided a succulent update on its partnership with SpaceX.

Instead of carrying out a single mission to the international station, the companies were preparing to launch four missions with tourists on board. The first of these missions is scheduled to leave in January 2022, while the other three will occur throughout 2023.

The goal, however, is not to use the international space station, but to start working towards a private autonomous station.

Axiom calls these missions "forerunners" designed to prepare for the launch of Axiom Station modules, which are essential areas where crew members can live and work.

The company plans to have these modules take off later to convert them into these private autonomous stations by 2028.

Space holidays future millions euros sector companies

Space Perspective

Smaller space tourism companies are focused on offering a shorter and more unique experience to their customers, on the condition that they have 103,000 euros to spend on a ticket.

Space Perspective is a U.S.-based startup that plans to carry eight passengers at a time on a sub-orbital flight aboard its "Neptune Capsule" bound for the shores of space

What makes this experience unique is that the passenger capsule will fly thanks to an aerospace balloon specially designed to reach an altitude of 14.5 kilometers - the stratosphere begins at 15 kilometers of altitude.

Its first commercial flights are planned to begin at the end of 2024.

Space holidays future millions euros sector companies

Zero2Infinity

Zero2Infinity is another company that offers its customers the opportunity to gently float to the ends of the earth using a helium balloon.

The main differences between these two experiences are the maximum height achieved and the number of seats available on each flight. Zero2Infinity will achieve a higher maximum height by reaching 35 kilometers, but will only have room for four customers.

In either case both experiences offer a similar experience: amazing views, drinks and photographs that are only enjoyed once in a lifetime.

Space holidays future millions euros sector companies

The Gateway Foundation

Over the next decade, making short trips into space will become a normalized form of tourism among those with more than six figures of income at their fingertips, but the companies do not plan to stop there and are already thinking of creating completely orbital vacations.

Although the exact definition of" orbital vacation " has not yet been established, the essence of the same brand is that it is a stay of several days in a kind of hotel intended to maintain its position in the low orbit of the Earth.

The Californian company The Gateway Foundation announced in 2019 its proposal for a luxury space hotel called Voyager Station. Scheduled to open in 2027, Voyager Station would be mankind's first operating special tourist hotel.

Composed of 24 separate room modules including amenities and services such as a restaurant, event center, villas and research laboratories, the floating hotel would offer tourists a complete orbital vacation

The science behind the hotel sits on a rotating wheel designed to create a small amount of simulated gravity, more exactly one-sixth of earth's gravity. The construction of this wheel-shaped hotel of a considerable size would be carried out using automated and remotely controlled robots that would work in orbit.

Once completed, Voyager Station would be the largest fabricated structure in space.

Other companies have tried to build commercial space stations before, but their failure is a stark reminder of the harshness of space. Orion Span is a perfect example, as it had to channel its Aurora Space Station project due to lack of funding.

With a launch date initially planned for 2022, some stakeholders paid Orion Span the deposit of 66,000 euros required to reserve a space on the ship, before the project failed. Luckily, according to the company, all the money was returned in full.

Space tourism is likely to continue to form only a small subsector of the tourism and travel industry for years to come, but it will continue to grow.

As more companies join the adventure, create more jobs and raise the industry's potential, space tourism will become a more conventional option

However, there are still a few issues to be solved before space tourism can be more than an exotic and exclusive activity for the wealthiest.

Ticket prices must go down, passenger capacity must grow, and safety tests must be passed before bringing more people into space is viable.

Luckily, everything can be achieved in time. Maybe one day a trip to low Earth orbit will be as common as spending a week in Hawaii.

# Space holidays future millions euros sector companies #