What life is like aboard the SpaceX Dragon capsule

The first space tourism mission by Elon Musk's SpaceX blasted off from Florida on Wednesday and the four crew members—a billionaire and three other Americans—have already seen more than 25 sunsets and sunrises.

Take 2: Spacewalking astronauts install new solar panel

Spacewalking astronauts equipped the International Space Station with the first in a series of powerful new solar panels Sunday, overcoming suit problems and other obstacles with muscle and persistence.

Virgin Galactic rocket ship ascends from New Mexico

Virgin Galactic on Saturday made its first rocket-powered flight from New Mexico to the fringe of space in a manned shuttle, as the company forges toward offering tourist flights to the edge of the Earth's atmosphere.

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Space tourism

Space tourism is the recent phenomenon of tourists paying for flights into space pioneered by Russia.

As of 2009, orbital space tourism opportunities are limited and expensive, with only the Russian Space Agency providing transport. The price for a flight brokered by Space Adventures to the International Space Station aboard a Soyuz spacecraft is $20–35 million.

Infrastructure for a suborbital space tourism industry is being developed through the construction of spaceports in numerous locations, including California, Oklahoma, New Mexico, Florida, Virginia, Alaska, Wisconsin, Esrange in Sweden as well as the United Arab Emirates. Some use the term "personal spaceflight" as in the case of the Personal Spaceflight Federation.

A number of startup companies have sprung up in recent years, hoping to create a space tourism industry. For a list of such companies, and the spacecraft they are currently building, see list of space tourism companies.

This text uses material from Wikipedia, licensed under CC BY-SA