The cost to go to space varies widely depending on the type of mission and the provider:
- Suborbital space tourism (a few minutes in space, just crossing the Kármán line) currently costs around $250,000 to $450,000 per seat with companies like Virgin Galactic and Blue Origin. Blue Origin requires a refundable deposit of $150,000, but exact ticket prices remain somewhat unclear
- Orbital flights (circling Earth, lasting days) are much more expensive, typically ranging from $20 million to $58 million per seat. For example, SpaceX charges about $55 million per seat for private orbital missions, with some seats on their Starship vehicle reportedly priced around $2 million for the upcoming all-civilian flight in 2025, though other orbital flights can cost tens of millions per seat
- Private missions to the International Space Station (ISS) have been estimated at about $58 million per round-trip ticket, with longer lunar missions costing upwards of $175 million per seat
- Future cost trends suggest that as technology matures and flight frequency increases, suborbital ticket prices could drop below $200,000 by 2025 and potentially around $100,000 by 2030. Orbital flights are expected to remain significantly more expensive for the foreseeable future
In summary, a brief suborbital trip currently costs roughly a quarter-million dollars, while orbital flights cost tens of millions per seat, with prices expected to decrease gradually over the next decade as space tourism develops and competition grows.
