History of Space Tourism
Abstract
This chapter examines the historical development of space tourism from early wondering at the heavens to more recent extraterrestrial astrotourism. It catalogs the development of the significant terrestrial space tourism market, including dark-sky tourism, launch tours, zero-G flights, and edutainment experiences, as part of a “steps to space” for costlier future developments in space tourism. Recent developments in the suborbital sector initiated by the XPRIZE and spearheaded by Virgin Galactic are the next stage in this product ladder. All these draw on a rich history of space exploration – imagined, virtual, and real – that frames how future developments in space tourism can be viewed.
Keywords
Citation
Cater, C. (2019), "History of Space Tourism", Space Tourism (Tourism Social Science Series, Vol. 25), Emerald Publishing Limited, Leeds, pp. 51-66. https://doi.org/10.1108/S1571-504320190000025003
Publisher
:Emerald Publishing Limited
Copyright © 2019 Emerald Publishing Limited