Space tourism is human space travel for recreational purposes. There are several different types of space tourism, including orbital, suborbital and lunar space tourism. Tourists are motivated by the possibility of viewing Earth from space, feeling weightlessness, experiencing extremely high speed and something unusual, and contributing to science.
St. Jude Children's Research Hospital is a pediatric treatment and research hospital headquartered in Memphis, Tennessee. Founded by entertainer Danny Thomas in 1962, it is a 501(c)(3) designated nonprofit medical corporation which focuses on children's catastrophic diseases, particularly leukemia and other cancers. In the 2021 fiscal year, St. Jude received $2 billion in donations. Daily operating costs average $1.7 million, but patients are not charged for care. St. Jude’s covers some, but not all cancer-related costs. St. Jude treats patients up to age 21, and for some conditions, up to age 25.
The American Lebanese Syrian Associated Charities (ALSAC) is an American nonprofit organization. Founded by entertainer Danny Thomas in 1957, its purpose is exclusively to raise funds for and awareness of St. Jude Children's Research Hospital. ALSAC is the largest healthcare-related charity in the United States and raises 87% of St. Jude's annual operating budget from private donors.
Jared Taylor Isaacman is an American entrepreneur, pilot, philanthropist, and commercial astronaut. He was nominated by President Donald Trump in January 2025 to serve as the next administrator of NASA. He is the founder of Draken International, which provides adversary training to the US, British, and other NATO air forces, and the founder and CEO of Shift4 Payments, a payment processor. Through his leadership in private space exploration, Isaacman has been credited with advancing competition in the space industry and reducing reliance on government programs. As of September 2024, his estimated net worth is US$1.9 billion.
Women have flown and worked in outer space since almost the beginning of human spaceflight. A considerable number of women from a range of countries have worked in space, though overall women are still significantly less often chosen to go to space than men, and by June, 2020 constitute only 12% of all astronauts who have been to space. Yet, the proportion of women among space travelers is increasing substantially over time. The first woman to fly in space was Soviet Valentina Tereshkova, aboard the Vostok 6 space capsule on June 16–19, 1963. Tereshkova was a textile-factory assembly worker, rather than a pilot like the male cosmonauts flying at the time, chosen for propaganda value, her devotion to the Communist Party, and her years of experience in sport parachuting, which she used on landing after ejecting from her capsule. Women were not qualified as space pilots and workers co-equal to their male counterparts until 1982. By October 2021, most of the 70 women who have been to space have been United States citizens, with missions on the Space Shuttle and on the International Space Station. Other countries have flown one, two or three women in human spaceflight programs. Additionally one woman of dual Iranian-US citizenship has participated as a tourist on a US spaceflight.
The following is a timeline of important events in the history of private spaceflight, including important technical as well as legislative and political advances. Though the industry has its origins in the early 1960s, soon after the beginning of the Space Age, private companies did not begin conducting launches into space until the 1980s, and it was not until the 21st century that multiple companies began privately developing and operating launch vehicles and spacecraft in earnest.
Sian Hayley "Leo" Proctor is an American commercial astronaut, geology professor, artist, author, and science communicator. She became the first female commercial spaceship pilot and the first artist selected to go to be an astronaut on the all-civilian Inspiration4 orbital spaceflight, 15 September 2021. As pilot of the Inspiration4's SpaceX Crew Dragon space capsule, Proctor became the first African-American woman to pilot a spacecraft. She was also the education outreach officer for the first Hawaii Space Exploration Analog and Simulation (HI-SEAS) Mission. In 2024, Proctor was selected to be a U.S. Science Envoy for the United States Department of State.
Crew Dragon Resilience is the second operational Crew Dragon reusable spacecraft manufactured and operated by SpaceX, after Endeavour. It first launched on 16 November 2020 to the International Space Station (ISS) on the SpaceX Crew-1 mission, the first operational flight of NASA's Commercial Crew Program. It was subsequently used for Inspiration4 in 2021, the first private spaceflight mission with an all-civilian crew, and the Polaris Dawn mission in September 2024. It is scheduled to next operate the private Fram2 spaceflight mission in 2025.
MV Megan, formerly known as MV GO Searcher, is one of SpaceX's two Dragon capsule recovery vessels. Owned by SpaceX through Falcon Landing LLC, this vessel, along with its sister ship, MV Shannon, are converted platform supply vessels now equipped to retrieve Crew and Cargo Dragon capsules after splashdown.
Alyssa Carson is an American social media influencer and space enthusiast known for her ambition from a young age to be the first person on Mars. She has attended numerous space camps and has visited every NASA visitor center. She uses the social media branding NASABlueberry, but NASA has publicly stated she is not affiliated with NASA or any space program.
Inspiration4 was a 2021 human spaceflight operated by SpaceX on behalf of Shift4 Payments CEO Jared Isaacman. The mission launched the Crew Dragon Resilience on 16 September 2021 at 00:02:56 UTC from Kennedy Space Center's Launch Complex 39A atop a Falcon 9 launch vehicle. It placed the Dragon capsule into a low Earth orbit. The mission ended on 18 September 2021 at 23:06:49 UTC, when Resilience splashed down in the Atlantic Ocean.
Christopher Sembroski is an American data engineer, Air Force veteran, and commercial astronaut. He flew to orbit on Inspiration4, a private spaceflight funded by billionaire Jared Isaacman.
An amateur astronaut is an untrained person participating in a spaceflight. The term is widely used by SpaceX and others, and by widespread media, especially after the launch of Inspiration4, crewed by 4 untrained humans, on a 3-day flight around the Earth.
Countdown: Inspiration4 Mission to Space is a 2021 American five-part docuseries jointly produced by Netflix and Time Studios to chronicle, in near real-time, the successful SpaceX Inspiration4 orbital mission which occurred in September 2021.
Anil Menon is a lieutenant colonel in the United States Air Force, emergency medicine physician and NASA astronaut.
Polaris Dawn was a private crewed spaceflight operated by SpaceX on behalf of Shift4 CEO Jared Isaacman, the first of three planned missions in the Polaris program. Launched 10 September 2024 as the 14th crewed orbital flight of a Crew Dragon spacecraft, Isaacman and his crew of three — Scott Poteet, Sarah Gillis and Anna Menon — flew in an elliptic orbit that took them 1,400 kilometers (870 mi) away from Earth, the farthest anyone has been since NASA's Apollo program. They passed through parts of the Van Allen radiation belt to study the health effects of space radiation and spaceflight on the human body. Later in the mission, the crew performed the first commercial spacewalk.
Anna Menon is an American engineer employed by SpaceX as lead space operations and a mission director. She flew on Polaris Dawn, a private human spaceflight mission operated by SpaceX on behalf of Jared Isaacman. During the September 2024 mission, she served as the onboard medical officer and, along with Sarah Gillis, set the record for women traveling farthest from Earth.
The Polaris program is a private spaceflight program organized by entrepreneur Jared Isaacman. Building on his experience as commander of the Inspiration4 mission—the first all-civilian spaceflight—Isaacman contracted with SpaceX to establish Polaris. The program involves two missions using SpaceX's Crew Dragon spacecraft and is planned to culminate in the first crewed launch on Starship.
Sarah Levine "Cooper" Gillis is an American engineer employed by SpaceX as the senior space operations engineer. She flew to space in September 2024 on Polaris Dawn, a private human spaceflight mission, operated by SpaceX on behalf of Jared Isaacman. During the mission, she completed the first commercial spacewalk with Isaacman, becoming the youngest person to date to participate in a spacewalk, and, along with Anna Menon, set a new record for women traveling farthest from Earth.
Scott "Kidd" Poteet is an American retired pilot from the United States Air Force. He was the pilot of the Polaris Dawn mission in 2024, a privately funded human spaceflight operated by SpaceX for Jared Isaacman.
