In early December of 2021, as a guest on Kratos’ Constellations podcast, E2MC’s founder Raphael Roettgen spoke about the different space segments that are ripe for investment in a very exciting time in humanity’s history. The growth of accessibility and the reduction of launch costs have more and more companies and investors looking to the sky for innovations that were just a dream a decade ago. The segment of space tourism is one place where dreams are beginning to come true. To follow-up on the podcast, we asked Raphael to further explore the current and future reality of visiting space for fun.
Constellations: What options – to your knowledge - are currently available for visiting space?
Raphael Roettgen: There are four categories currently on the table for visiting space or near-space: Lunar, orbital, and suborbital. Lunar includes circumlunar flights on a Starship, such as the flight Yusako Maezawa (who also recently visited the ISS) booked with SpaceX. While the price of this is undisclosed, it may be currently available for booking. Flights obviously will only start in a few years’ time if all goes well.
For orbital space tourism, there are currently several options: Option one is via Axiom Space, flying on the SpaceX Crew Dragon to the ISS, for US $55 million. The first such mission, Ax-1, is expected to fly in 1Q2022. Further flights are already planned and even partly booked. Option two is via Space Adventures, using Roscosmos and the Soyuz vehicle, also going to the ISS. Yusako Maezawa took this route. Option three is Freeflyer orbital flights, without docking at the ISS. The first such example was the recent Inspiration4 mission on the SpaceX Crew Dragon. Undisclosed price.
Suborbital space tourism flights take customers up to space and immediately down again, on relatively short rocket flights. There are currently two crewed suborbital vehicles, albeit only one is currently flying. Virgin Galactic’s SpaceShip Two conducted its initial passenger flight in July 2021, with Richard Branson and others onboard but has not flown passengers since. The company said it will refurbish its spacecraft and expects flights to resume in the fourth quarter of 2022. The ticket price is US $450k, up from around US$250k previously – which would seem to illustrate the current pricing power in the sector. The Blue Origin New Shepard also had its first passenger flight in July 2021, with Jeff Bezos and others onboard. It has already flown two more times since then, including taking William Shatner aka “Captain Kirk” on one of its flights.
Lastly, some companies are already selling seats on stratospheric balloons that would travel to the edge of space, around 100-120k feet. This is a lower altitude than the rockets, but you will be able to see the curvature of Earth as well as the thin blue line of its atmosphere and the blackness of space. It will be quite a different experience from travel on the rockets, taking passengers on gentle (no high g-forces) rides for multiple hours at a time in a comfortable, spacious custom-designed capsule. Given the available space and time, a lot more activities are feasible than on the suborbital rockets. Space Perspective, the main space balloon startup, says that there will even be a bar on board. The price is also cheaper (Space Perspective currently charges US $125k), so this experience will be more accessible all around.
Constellations: What are some of the pros and cons of orbital space travel?
Raphael Roettgen: The pros: There is much more time to do things if you go into orbit, whether for experimentation or meditation. The cons: There is more training required for orbital travel, no matter the purpose. It is also arguably more dangerous, but that can depend on the vehicle used, among other things.
Constellations: What are some of the pros and cons of suborbital space travel?
Raphael Roettgen: The pros: This type of space visit requires less training and can be ventured upon for a lower price – which makes it more accessible to people. The cons: Travelers get a very short time in space – only a few minutes on the rockets. If you want to include the Space balloons in the suborbital category, too, then those do not have the disadvantage of limited time, as the rides last several hours. However, you will not experience microgravity – then again, some people may argue that is an advantage as space sickness is a real thing.
Constellations: We have recently broken the barriers of getting non-astronauts to space and visiting for short periods of time (minutes to hours), but now there are companies looking to build commercial space stations so (in addition to other uses) visitors have a place to stay a little longer. It was reported on December 6 that NASA selected three companies to develop commercial space stations. Can you share your thoughts on commercial space stations in general and how they impact the advancement of space tourism?
Raphael Roettgen: Space stations provide us with a destination and, generally, with more space to do things than the capsules – at least for now. Starship as a vehicle will have much more space than your average station, though! Private, purpose-built stations for tourism can also step up the luxury level for those who care about that – see Axiom partnering with Philippe Starck for the interior design of its station.
Constellations: We have proven we can send non-astronauts to space, and we are planning to support extended stays in space, what do you think about landing on the moon or other planets for vacation? Is that really feasible?
Raphael Roettgen: There are big differences depending on which places you go to and what the mission profile looks like. A circumlunar mission, without landing, should soon be feasible and in fact we already have the first such tourist trip booked, by Yusako Maezawa on a SpaceX Starship. Landing and operating on the moon surface brings additional challenges – we need spacesuits and ultimately, we should have habitats, too. For those missions, let’s first leave it to professionals to pave the way. Nowadays, you can book almost tourist-like trips to very harsh places on Earth, like Antarctica or Mount Everest – but initially those places were opened by hard core explorers who trained and were aware of the risks and willing to take them. Just like with those places on Earth, once we have experience operating there and have basic infrastructure in place, I think non-professionals should be able to follow. Mars is a very long way away, with even the one-way trip taking 6+ months, at least with current technology, but I believe that we will eventually go there, including non-professional astronauts.
Constellations: When looking at the future, how long do you believe it will be before an average person can afford a trip to space?
Raphael Roettgen: One reason my venture firm is invested in space tourism is that, for the foreseeable future, we see a supply/demand imbalance because there are very few options available to get somebody into or even near space. At the same time, there are actually many wealthy people around who are interested in such a trip. So, that imbalance means pricing power, as evidenced by Virgin Galactic’s announcement of a price increase last year for their flights to $450k/ticket from previously around $250k. So, that is also a sign that suppliers do not need to lower prices for now. Ultimately, the supply of crew-capable vehicles should increase - SpaceX clearly wants to mass-produce Starships – which will eventually drive prices down. In the meantime, I do like the ideas of sponsorships and competitions, which can help to ensure that we allow a diverse set of people to have the experience of space travel, to communicate about it and to inspire others. With regard to affording space travel while it is still very expensive, allow me one seemingly facetious yet meant-to-be-serious comment, wearing my hat as a space venture capitalist: we still need a lot more entrepreneurs in the space sector. If you become such an entrepreneur and end up with a very successful exit, why not reward yourself with a trip to space?
Constellations: Is there anything else you would like to add regarding space tourism?
Raphael Roettgen: First, if you want to read up further on the subject, a colleague from the space sector, Laura Forczyk, serendipitously just published a book, Becoming Off-Worldly, in which professional and private astronauts talk about their experiences. Second, let me close on this note: Space tourism is not and should not be only about billionaire joyrides. It should be about helping to open up this final frontier, helping to advance science (whether that is tourists helping to conduct science themselves or simply by them helping to generate more data on how the human body reacts to spaceflight), and experiencing what we call the Overview Effect, a term coined by author Frank White to describe an experience that virtually all astronauts reported: a mental shift that happens upon seeing the Earth as a whole in the blackness of space, with no visible borders.
About E2MC Ventures
E2MC Ventures is a venture capital firm focused on the space sector that aims to provide the financing required to develop the space economy and pave humanity’s expansion into space, including realizing the positive impact inherent in space tech. E2MC, which stands for Earth-to-Mars Capital, is excited about the potential of space tourism and has invested in it, via its participation in the seed and Series A rounds of Space Perspective.
