9 new ways of space tourism

The idea of ​​sending tourists into space appeared a long time ago, but only recently several corporations have begun work on suitable, commercially accessible transport. Round-up projects of these corporations below. Perhaps one of them will make spaceflight available not only for astronauts and billionaires.

Falcon


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SpaceX wants to reduce the cost of space launches almost 100 times by returning the Falcon rocket to the ground, instead of breaking down and falling into the ocean, as usually happens at launch. So far, only the first stage of the rocket successfully lands on the ground and only in 70% of cases.
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Adeline



Competing with SpaceX, the project of the European corporation Airbus - Adeline plans to return not the entire rocket, but only the most important and expensive part of it. The first attempts to carry out such a return will be made in 2020 with a new European rocket - Ariane 6 ( 1 ).
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Blue origin



The same trick is trying to turn the company of another billionaire Jeff Bezos - Blue origin. The company has already implemented 4 successful launch and landing of its rocket. Then the company is going to use rockets for space tourism. The first tourists will be taken as early as 2018.
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SpaceShipTwo



Richard Branson is also focused on space tourism with his new SpaceShipTwo spacecraft, presented this year. (the last ship crashed and the pilot died, but Virgin Galactic does not lose heart)
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Roc



Microsoft co-founder Paul Allen founded Stratolaunch Systems to build the largest aircraft in history - Roc. He will raise the rocket to a predetermined height and let go in independent flight, while he himself will return to the ground. The first flight of this type of space tourism is expected in 2018.
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Cosmocourse



Russia has not remained aloof from the organization of space tourism (especially since we are already sending tourists to the ISS on the Unions, but expensive, for several tens of million dollars).
Now, in addition to this, the resident of Skolkovo - the Cosmocourse company is engaged in the creation of a reusable suborbital space complex for tourist flights into space. According to the plan, a group of 6 people will be sent in a capsule in a 15-minute flight for $ 200,000. The first flight is optimistic for 2020.
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Worldview



Another form of suborbital tourism is WorldView. Flying in a capsule on a huge ball. Critics of the project say that the ball will rise only 30 km, without leaving the atmosphere of the earth. therefore, it cannot be considered truly space tourism. In any case, the first commercial tours are scheduled for the beginning of 2018.
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Dream chaser



The private company Sierra Nevada Corporation creates something like a new version of the shuttle - DreamChaser for delivering cargo and crews of up to 7 people to the ISS and suborbital flights. The first delivery is expected in 2019.
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Roscosmos



After much hesitation, Roskosmos undertook the development of a project to return the first stage of the rocket. In June 2016, the unit responsible for developing reusable flights was restored. The first step will not land in the ocean, but will return to the earth on wings, like an airplane. The project is still in its early stages, but former developers of the Buran shuttle shuttle were attracted to work on it.

Space tourism will not be available to everyone. Or rather, only those who can write a check for hundreds of thousands of dollars without regret. But still it will be a step forward for astronautics, if at least one of these projects is implemented.