Space Tourism: Industry view exploration and space's new frontiers

Main shuttles and private companies developing suborbital travel with data on flights.

With spacecraft that can carry tourists into orbit and connect Paris to New York in less than two hours, the new heroes of space travel are not astronauts but daring captains of industry.

This new breed of space pioneers are all using private money to push the final frontier as government space programmes fall away.

Times have changed. Once the space race was led by the likes of the US space agency NASA that put the first man on the moon in 1969.

Today it is entrepreneur Elon Musk, the founder of Tesla electric cars and space exploration company SpaceX, who wants to reach Mars in the 2020s.

The furthest advanced, and most highly-publicised, private space project is led by Richard Branson, infamous English hedonist and founder of the Virgin Group.

His so-called shuttle, SpaceShipTwo, will be launched at high altitude from a weird-looking four-engined mothership, which can carry two pilots and up to six passengers, before embarking on a three-hour suborbital flight.

Branson and his sons will be the first passengers aboard the shuttle when it is expected to launch later this year.

His company Virgin Galactic was given the green light in May by the US Federal Aviation Agency (FAA) to carry passengers from a base in New Mexico, which is named "Spaceport America," the stuff of science fiction.

File picture shows the WhiteKnightTwo, which carries Virgin's SpaceShipTwo into high altitude, prior to a flight at Spaceport America, northeast of Truth Or Consequences, New Mexico

Profitable at $250,000 a ticket 
The $250,000 (190,000 euro) price of a ticket has not deterred more than 600 people, including celebrities such as actor Leonardo DiCaprio, from booking their seats.

XCOR Lynx spaceplane
The US spaceflight company XCOR is more affordable, offering a one-hour suborbital flight for $100,000 (74,000 euros) on a shuttle that takes off from the Mojave Desert in California. XCOR have already sold nearly 300 tickets.

Michiel Mol

"The first prototype is being assembled. Hopefully, the test flights will begin before the end of the year, and commercial flights before the end of 2015," Michiel Mol, an XCOR board member, told reporters.

It plans four flights a day and hopes its frequency will eventually give it an edge on Virgin Galactic.

But the new space business is not just about pandering to the whims of the rich, it also hopes to address a market for launching smaller satellites that weigh less than 250 kilograms (550 pounds).

"There is no dedicated launcher for small satellites," said Rachel Villain of Euroconsult, a global consulting firm specialising in space markets.

"Everyone has been looking for years for the Holy Grail of how to reduce costs, other than to send them as passengers on big launchers."

Virtual photo of XCOR Aerospace's Lynx during a press conference in Beverly Hills, California, on December 2, 2008

'Smarter, cheaper, reusable'
"These new players are revolutionising the launch market," said aeronautical expert Philippe Boissat of consultants Deloitte.

"They are smarter, cheaper, and they are reusable and don't leave debris in space."

Which is exactly what one newcomer, Swiss Space Systems (S3), proposes. With a shuttle on the back of an EADS Airbus A300, its founder Pascal Jaussi wants to start launching satellites before going into intercontinental passenger flights.


The 37-year-old former test pilot claims he can cut the price of a 250-kilogram satellite launch to eight million euros (almost $11 million), a quarter of what it now costs.

"Satellite makers wanting to launch groups of weather and surveillance satellites have already filled our order books," he said.

The first test flights are planned for the end of 2017, and the first satellite launches will begin at the end of the following year from a base in the Canary Islands, the Spanish archipelago off northwest Africa.

For passenger travel, the new space companies have to be passed by the regulators who currently control air travel.

At the moment a passenger plane covers the 5,800 kilometres (3,600 miles) between Paris and New York in seven hours. At Mach3 speed, the S3 shuttle will do the same trip in one-and-a-half hours.

"We hope to have a ticket price comparable to a first-class transatlantic fare. It should never be more than 30,000 Swiss francs (24,700 euros, $33,100)," he said.

Boissat of Deloitte is already looking further ahead.

"These suborbital flights will produce a new generation of fighter pilots at the controls of space shuttles sent up to protect satellites or neutralise ones that pose a threat," he predicted.

Swiss Space Systems (S3) launch the ZeroG experience

Zero gravity flights operated by S3 ZeroG open for passengers of 8 years and older.

In 2015, Swiss Space Systems (S3) will put the ZeroG experience within everyone's reach. S3 is launching affordable zero gravity flights from more than 15 locations across the world including, for the first time ever, Asia, the Middle East and Central America.

ZeroG flights make it possible to experience true weightlessness, allowing bodies and materials to float free of the earth's gravitational pull.

The S3 parabolic flights are completely safe, and supervised by space professionals and a crew of qualified personnel.

All flights last less than 2 hours, during which 15 parabolas are performed, each providing an experience of weightlessness for 20 to 25 seconds.

S3 provides a customised ZeroG feeling for all


"These ZeroG flights are a first step towards Space for All, giving everyone the chance to enjoy the weightlessness experienced by astronauts in space", explains Pascal Jaussi, CEO of S3.

Zero gravity flights operated by S3 ZeroG open for passengers of 8 years and older. Three categories of ticket are on offer:

In this zone, which caters for up to 40 passengers, ZeroG is available for under 2'000 Euros per head. This is the world's most affordable ZeroG experience.

This luxurious section offers more room for each of a maximum of 28 passengers.

Premium Zone tickets cost 5'000 Euros and include special activities such as playing with liquids and balloons.

Passengers will receive an exclusive Breitling S3 ZeroG personalized watch, which will serve as the passenger's boarding pass.

This very exclusive part of the plane welcomes up to 12 passengers at a minimum cost of 50'000 Euros for the whole zone, with a range of options available for a tailor-made experience.



This is the promotional S3 ZeroG video from the Swiss Space Systems (S3) website.

Swiss Space Systems to Launch Robotic Mini-Shuttle in 2017

The Switzerland-based Swiss Space Systems announced plans to launch a privately built SOAR unmanned space plane from an Airbus A300 jetliner by 2017 for small satellite launches. 

CREDIT: Swiss Space Systems

A Swiss company has unveiled an ambitious plan to build a privately built robotic rocket plane by 2017 in order launch satellites into orbit.

The company Swiss Space Systems (S3) plans to loft the unmanned suborbital shuttle from the back of an Airbus A300 jetliner to serve as a commercial satellite launch platform.

The Payerne based, Switzerland firm unveiled the satellite launch concept on March 13 and is expected to reveal the supplier of its shuttle rocket engine in April.


"S3 aims to develop, build, certify and operate suborbital space shuttles dedicated to launching small satellites, enabling space access to be made more democratic thanks to an original system with launching costs up to four times less than at present," the company announced in a statement.

"The first test launches will be carried out by the end of 2017."

S3 officials said they plan to build a mock up of the unmanned mini-shuttle by 2014, then open the a commercial spaceport in Payerne in 2015.

The first flightworthy spacecraft prototype is slated to be built by in 2016, with the initial test flights following a year later. If all ges well, commercial satellite launches would begin in 2018.

Gregoire Loretan

The unmanned satellite launches may be just the beginning, S3 officials said.

"Our first priority is the launch of small satellites until 2018," Gregoire Loretan, S3's head of communications, told reporters.

"And the goal for S3 is to establish certification process and standards to help the development of manned flight afterwards."

This artist's illustration shows the Swiss Space Systems unmanned SOAR space plane gliding back to its spaceport after launching a small satellite. 

CREDIT: Swiss Space Systems A new rocket plane rises

According to S3's flight plan, the company plans to launch its robot rocket plane from an altitude of about 33,000 feet (10,000 meters). After separating from the carrier plane, the rocket plane will fire a liquid oxygen and kerosene rocket engine to reach an altitude of nearly 50 miles (80 kilometers).

S3 officials have dubbed the vehicle a space plane, though technically the rocket-powered craft will not fly high enough to cross the recognized the boundary of space, about 62 miles (100 km). But the 50-mile target altitude is high enough to launch a satellite into orbit.

At that height, the robotic shuttle will open its cargo bay doors to deploy a satellite equipped with its own rocket engine, a third stage, to launch the 550-pound (250 kilograms) satellite into an orbit about 434 miles (700 km) above Earth. The mini-shuttle should then glide back to Earth and land at its home spaceport.

The total development cost for the launch system is estimated to be about 200 million Swiss Francs, or $211 million. Another 50 million Francs ($53 million) will pay for a Swiss spaceport, S3 officials said.

"The overall budget is 250 millions [Swiss Francs], this includes one spaceport. A large part of this budget is already covered by private investors and our partners," Loretan said.