Space tourism  Meet the companies vying to be the first to launch commercial trips Daily Mail Online
Channel: World News
Date: 05/05/2023

With missions to the International Space Station (ISS) now the norm and Elon Musk talking about going to Mars, it's often hard to imagine that just 65 years ago no human had ever been to space.

For 300,000 years we walked the Earth but it wasn't until 1961 that Soviet cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin became the first person to escape the confines of our planet.

Now, five decades on, space tourism companies are springing up everywhere with promises to take ordinary people on adventures to the stars.
Yes, the vast majority have exorbitant ticket prices that make bagging a seat only attainable to the super rich, but as the industry develops the hope is they will gradually come down.

So who will win the race to offer regular commercial trips? And if money was no object, what could you get from the different options on offer? 

From Sir Richard Branson's Virgin Galactic space plane and Jeff Bezos' rocket, to stratospheric balloon ventures, trips to the ISS and orbital hotels, MailOnline takes a look below...
Source : Daily Mail Online