A holiday destination for very few

In July, Richard Branson's Virgin Galactic and Jeff Bezos's Blue Origin added the space, or its doors, in Virgin's case, to the list of luxury vacation destinations. Their proposals are different in height and vehicle, but the purpose is the same: earn money by satisfying the wishes of people who can afford it.

As with commercial aviation, the farther, the more expensive. A Virgin suborbital flight, for example, costs about $250,000. “We have studied it quite a bit, including surveys of wealthy people, and we are convinced that there is a market there,” says Brycetech CEO Carissa Christensen. "Imagine the price drops to $100,000 or $50,000 and becomes like buying a sports car," she adds.

Another thing is the orbital trips, further afield and involving a stay of several days, available for a modest price of several tens of millions of dollars. In this case, the target audience is reduced, but if a ticket costs around 50 million, Christensen recalls, a mission with four tourists means 200.

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Of this type it will be, if all goes according to plan, the first completely private trip to Earth orbit. Leading the way will be a billionaire, Jared Isaacman, founder of a listed payment processing company, who bought the entire ride from SpaceX. Another billionaire, Yusaku Maezawa, has a trip booked with SpaceX to orbit the Moon in 2023 at the earliest.

"It is a unique experience. Only around 560 people in history have traveled to space”, says López-Alegría, “it attracts us all”. He, excited to be able to wear the Spanish flag sewn to the suit this time along with the American one, will command AX-1, the first mission, scheduled for early 2022, totally private —with SpaceX transport— to the ISS. Flight, accommodation and full board, for 55 million dollars.

But the company's plans go further. "Now that we have the transportation quite done, we need a commercial destination," says López-Alegría. His intention is to establish the first commercial space station to take over from the ISS after its decommissioning, which is expected by the end of this decade. NASA alone, one of the five agencies that manages it, spends $3.5 billion a year on it. “Having the same access to a platform spending half, which is reasonable, that means almost 2,000 million for us. The calculations are done quite easily.

EOS X, a Spanish company, is also looking for its place, although a little closer to the ground. His proposal is a trip of about five hours in a capsule elevated up to 40 kilometers wrapped in a week-long leisure experience, in his own complexes, with an average price of about 150,000 euros. “The space industry and tourism segment is the industry of the decade,” says Kemel Kharbachi, founder and president. They plan to carry out, from Seville and Dubai, between 150 and 200 ascents per year. They have October marked on the calendar for the first tests, when they will open the sale.