Orbital tourism: three years of consistent demand

6/5/2023 - Written By Quilty Space

Axiom Space successfully completed their second private tourism mission to the ISS on May 31, 2023, after astronauts Ali Alqarni, Rayyanah Barnawi, John Shoffner, and Peggy Whitson splashed down safely just outside of Quilty Space’s home base of Tampa, Florida – no word on if Chris could see them from his back porch, but we’ll assume yes. The flight is Axiom’s second, with Ax-1 launching just over a year ago in April 2022. Across the industry, there has been at least one orbital tourism flight each year since Jared Isaacman’s Inspiration4 flight in 2021. That inaugural Inspiration4 flight reportedly cost “less than $200M," while Axiom’s Ax-1 flight was priced at $55M per head – both for crews of four astronauts. Axiom did not disclose pricing for Ax-2.

After three years of consistent demand, it is safe to say there is now an established floor for the orbital tourism market: no less than $200M per year. With Axiom’s Ax-3 and Isaacman’s Polaris Dawn mission both scheduled for launch later this year, 2023 orbital tourism revenues may even come in at 2-3x that figure.

- Axiom successfully completed its Ax-2 mission, returning four commercial astronauts safely to Earth after their 10 day stay on the ISS

- After three years of consistent demand, it feels safe to say the orbital tourism market is worth no less than $200M annually, though at only one flight per year, minor flight rate disruptions could cripple segment revenues quite quickly

- Customer demand continues to accelerate, with two more planned flights this year

SOURCE: https://gizmodo.com/watch-axiom-space-private-crew-return-from-iss-1850488372