Will space travel become affordable?

Billionaires Richard Branson and Jeff Bezos are ready to start offering trips to outer space. Experts agree it’s impossible to give an accurate target date for when “affordable” space flights will be available to the masses, but most agree they are decades away, at best.

How long until space travel is affordable?

Ultimately, by the 2030s the price level for a trip to space is likely to fall to about the same as that of a business class trans-Atlantic ticket today.

Is going to space so expensive?

But why is it so expensive? So long as we rely on chemical propulsion to lift us into orbit, space travel will never be cheap. The Tsiolkovsky equation shows that a rocket needs between 10 and 25 times as much propellant as the mass that it’s lifting into orbit.

How much will a Virgin Galactic flight cost?

Virgin Galactic has reopened ticket sales for its space flights at a starting price of $450,000 a seat. It comes after the company, led by billionaire Richard Branson, completed its first fully crewed flight to the edge of space in July.

What is Blue Origin doing?

Blue Origin is a private spaceflight company based in Kent, Washington that is working to send tourists to space on its reusable suborbital rocket called New Shepard.

How much does it cost to go to Mars?

The mission is expected to cost $2.7 billion, rising to $2.9 billion when inflation is factored in. Despite the seemingly high cost, Perseverance is only the third most expensive Mars mission, trailing Viking 1 & 2 and the Curiosity rover.

How much money does an astronaut make a year?

The pay grades for civilian astronauts are GS-11 through GS-14, based on academic achievements and experience. Currently, a GS-11 astronaut starts at $64,724 per year; a GS-14 astronaut can earn up to $141,715 in annual salary [source: NASA].

How much did Bezos space flight cost?

For roughly four minutes of weightlessness in suborbital space, the richest man alive spent around $5.5 billion.