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Boeing Plans to Send Tourists Into Space via Capsule by 2015

by Caleb Johnson on September 17, 2010 at 08:10 AM

Boeing CST-100 commercial flight capsule.
While it's out of the average person's price range, commercial space flight continues to move forward as government-funded space flight withers with a struggling economy. According to Space.com, Boeing, along with partner Space Adventures, plans to sell passenger seats aboard its Boeing Crew Space Transportation-100 spacecraft, which will make its first test flights by 2015. The cone-shaped CST-100 capsule measures about 15-feet across, and can carry up to seven people. It's designed to launch atop an expendable rocket, and the capsule will travel to the International Space Station (ISS) and planned private space stations.

Setting a ticket price is a long time away, but a Boeing representative said pricing would be comparable to Space Adventures' Soyuz spacecraft, which was launched by the Russians. For a comparison, Canadian billionaire Guy Laliberte spent about $40-million in 2009 for a seat on that spacecraft. But the cost of a seat aboard the CST-100 will also depend on how many trips a capsule can make before being replaced, as well as the cost of the rocket used to launch it. More government support could also help to lower costs, since the project began with an $18 million NASA grant as part of its Commercial Crew Development Space Act Agreement.

Boeing Space Transportation



Sadly, space tourism prices are of little consequence to us -- since we could save money for 50 years, and still not be able to afford a seat. That is, unless some secret billionaire wants to sponsor us for the sake of journalistic and scientific exploration...

Tags: Boeing, BoeingSpaceFlights, flight, GuyLaliberte, NASA, soyuz, space, SpaceTourism, SpaceTravel, top, tourism

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