The Coming Boom In Space Tourism

Jaunted shares an interesting observation today, regarding the future of private space travel. They compare the US government’s recent killing of NASA’s moon program, where $6 billion was re-distributed into promoting private spaceflight, to the early years of the airline industry.

They explain:

Instead of using NASA’s space shuttles to move our astronauts back and forth, the government would contract private firms to do the flying. The goal is to kill two birds with one budgetary allocation: the US would get to maintain its presence in space even while it injected badly-needed funds into the country’s growing space tourism industry.

If the plan works out, the space industry in 2020 will look a lot like the airline industry a hundred years earlier. Until the 1920’s, American planes were operated by the newly minted US Air Force. Then a bunch of small regional airlines began to develop, relying in no small part on guaranteed government air mail funding. In 1930 they merged into the corporation that became American Airlines, and the basis for modern civilian aviation was born.

Jaunted: “Will NASA’s Loss Be Space Tourism’s Gain?”