Space Tourism Companies

Virgin Galactic

Tustin, United States commercial

Virgin Galactic is a commercial spaceflight company founded by Richard Branson in 2004, specializing in suborbital tourism aboard its SpaceShipTwo winged spaceplane. The company launched from Spaceport America in New Mexico using the WhiteKnightTwo carrier aircraft. After years of development following the 2014 VSS Enterprise fatal accident, Virgin Galactic conducted Richard Branson's flight in July 2021 and began commercial service in 2023 with the Galactic 01 mission. However, the company suspended all SpaceShipTwo flight operations in July 2023 to redirect resources toward the next-generation Delta class vehicle, designed for higher flight rates and operational efficiency. As of 2026, Virgin Galactic is in a development hiatus — not actively flying, not accepting new bookings, and significantly reduced in headcount. The Delta class vehicle represents the company's planned path back to commercial operations, but timeline and financing remain uncertain. SPCE stock has declined sharply from its peak.

CAS Space

Guangzhou, China commercial

CAS Space (中科宇航, Zhongke Aerospace), founded in 2018 and headquartered in Beijing, is a Chinese commercial launch company affiliated with the Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS) — China's premier state research institution — providing solid-fuel small-lift launch services and developing medium-lift reusable vehicles for the growing commercial satellite constellation market. CAS Space's operational vehicle is the Lijian-1 (also marketed internationally as Kinetica-1), a four-stage solid-fuel rocket with approximately 1.5-tonne payload capacity to 500 km sun-synchronous orbit. Lijian-1 made its debut flight in July 2022, successfully deploying six commercial satellites in a rideshare configuration — making it China's first commercially successful solid-fuel orbital rocket. Subsequent flights have delivered commercial EO and communications satellites for Chinese operators, establishing Lijian-1 as a reliable catalog launch vehicle competing with Kuaizhou-1A and other Chinese commercial solid rockets. Beyond Lijian-1, CAS Space is developing the Lijian-2 medium-lift vehicle featuring a liquid-propellant reusable first stage with vertical landing recovery, following SpaceX Falcon 9 reusability architecture. CAS Institute resources — including propulsion laboratories, materials science expertise, and testing facilities — provide CAS Space with access to research infrastructure that pure commercial startups lack, potentially accelerating propulsion development timelines. CAS Space competes domestically with CASC (state), CASIC (state), iSpace, Galactic Energy, Landspace, and Space Pioneer in China's expanding commercial launch market. International competition for LEO constellation launch contracts includes SpaceX, RocketLab, and ISRO's PSLV. CAS Space's institutional parentage provides government customer relationships while its commercial structure enables market-rate pricing flexibility.

World View

Tucson, United States commercial

World View is a Tucson, Arizona-based stratospheric technology company founded in 2012 operating pressurized capsules suspended beneath large helium balloons that ascend to 30-40 km altitude in the stratosphere — providing both premium passenger tourism flights (branded as 'Voyager') and commercial sensing, surveillance, and communications services using long-duration stratospheric balloon platforms (branded as 'Stratollite'). The Voyager passenger experience carries groups of eight passengers in a pressurized, temperature-controlled, and windowed capsule ascending slowly over approximately two hours to stratospheric altitudes where the curvature of Earth is visible against the black of space, the Sun's corona is visible as a ring around the atmospheric limb, and passengers experience the overview effect in an environment similar to a high-altitude aircraft cabin — without the g-forces, noise, or vibration of rocket flight. The return journey uses a parafoil (steerable parachute) for a gentle descent and precision landing. At approximately $50,000 per seat, the Voyager experience targets the luxury tourism market as an accessible alternative to suborbital rocket flights. The Stratollite commercial sensing platform is World View's primary revenue vehicle: uncrewed stratospheric balloons carrying imaging sensors, communications relay payloads, electronic intelligence (ELINT) receivers, or other remote sensing instruments can maintain station over a geographic area for days to weeks at a time (using controlled altitude changes to catch stratospheric winds that keep the balloon in the desired region), providing persistent overhead coverage impossible from satellites that orbit continuously and pass over a given point only briefly each day. Applications include military intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance (ISR) over denied-area targets, wildfire monitoring, border surveillance, communications relay, and atmospheric science. USAF and DARPA contracts have supported Stratollite development as military stakeholders recognize the persistent dwell capability as complementary to satellite coverage. The US Army uses similar stratospheric balloon surveillance under various contracted programs. World View competes with Loon (Google's project, shut down 2021), Raven Aerostar (balloon manufacturer and operator), and LEO satellite ISR providers like Hawkeye 360 and HawkEye 360 Federal in specific market segments.

Zero 2 Infinity

Barcelona, Spain commercial

Zero 2 Infinity is a Barcelona, Spain-based aerospace company founded in 2009 developing two complementary near-space and orbital access services: high-altitude scientific balloon flights carrying payloads and passengers to the stratosphere (~40 km), and the Bloostar orbital launch vehicle — a rockoon (rocket launched from a stratospheric balloon) designed to deliver small satellites to low Earth orbit at significantly lower cost than conventional ground-launched rockets. Zero 2 Infinity's near-space balloon program, branded as 'bloon', targets both scientific payload hosting and commercial space tourism experiences — carrying customers and experiments in a pressurized gondola suspended beneath a helium balloon that ascends over four hours to approximately 36-40 km altitude, where passengers experience the curvature of the Earth against the black sky of space (though technically below the Kármán line at 100 km). The stratosphere at these altitudes offers near-vacuum conditions beneficial for atmospheric science instruments, microgravity-analogous environments for biology experiments, and views that have been valuable for marketing experiences for brands (Red Bull, luxury goods companies) seeking the visual imagery of near-space. The balloon approach is gentler than rocket flight — no vibration, no high g-forces — making it accessible to non-astronaut passengers and fragile scientific instruments. The Bloostar orbital launch vehicle concept is the company's more ambitious program. Rather than launching from the ground, Bloostar is carried to high altitude beneath a balloon before igniting its rocket engine — gaining several significant performance advantages: launching above approximately 99% of atmospheric mass (eliminating drag losses), allowing launch from any location on Earth (not fixed to a ground launch site), and reducing the rocket's structural requirements since it need not survive high-dynamic-pressure ascent through the lower atmosphere. Bloostar uses a toroidal (donut-shaped) rocket engine configuration and is designed to deploy CubeSats and small payloads into LEO. Competitors in rockoon launch concepts include Interstellar Technologies (Japan) and Sanborn Space, while in the near-space tourism balloon market World View Enterprises and Space Perspective are building similar stratospheric passenger balloon services. Zero 2 Infinity's Barcelona base gives it access to Spanish industrial ecosystem and ESA's ESAC facilities.

The Spaceship Company (TSC) is a spacecraft and aircraft manufacturer founded in mid-2005 by Burt Rutan and Richard Branson to build and own the vehicles flown by Virgin Galactic, separating manufacturing from Virgin Galactic's flight-operations business. Based at the Mojave Air and Space Port in Mojave, California, TSC became a wholly owned Virgin Galactic subsidiary in 2012 after Virgin bought out Scaled Composites' stake, and it subsequently took over production and flight testing of SpaceShipTwo-class suborbital spaceplanes and their WhiteKnightTwo carrier aircraft from Scaled Composites, which had built the original SpaceShipTwo, VSS Enterprise (lost in a fatal 2014 test-flight accident). TSC built and tested VSS Unity, VSS Imagine and related vehicles, and the carrier aircraft VMS Eve, supporting Virgin Galactic's commercial suborbital tourism flights, which began in 2023 and carried paying customers and researchers from Spaceport America, New Mexico. The company has also pursued supersonic aircraft work, partnering with Boom Technology from 2016 on the XB-1 demonstrator aircraft. In 2024 Virgin Galactic paused active flight operations of the Unity-class spaceplane and shifted TSC's manufacturing effort toward larger, more production-friendly Delta-class vehicles intended for commercial service later in the decade. The Spaceship Company remains active as Virgin Galactic's in-house manufacturing arm, based in Mojave, California, with additional facilities reported in Tustin, California.

PD AeroSpace

Hekinan, Japan commercial

PD AeroSpace (PD stands for Pulse Detonation) is a Japanese aerospace company developing suborbital spaceplanes using hybrid jet-rocket propulsion with pulse detonation technology. The company aims to carry 2 pilots and 6 passengers on suborbital flights. PD AeroSpace plans to operate from Shimojishima spaceport in Okinawa and envisions point-to-point transport connecting Tokyo to New York in 60 minutes.

Scaled Composites is an American aerospace prototyping and experimental aircraft company founded in 1982 by aerospace designer Burt Rutan and based at the Mojave Air and Space Port in Mojave, California. The company built SpaceShipOne, the first privately developed crewed vehicle to reach space, which won the $10 million Ansari X Prize in 2004 after two flights above 100 km; that programme, funded by Microsoft co-founder Paul Allen, established Scaled Composites as the leading builder of experimental suborbital spaceplanes. Scaled subsequently designed and built the original SpaceShipTwo and its WhiteKnightTwo carrier aircraft for Virgin Galactic, though manufacture and testing of later SpaceShipTwo-class vehicles was transferred to Virgin's own subsidiary, The Spaceship Company. Other notable Scaled Composites projects include the Proteus high-altitude research aircraft, the Virgin Atlantic GlobalFlyer (first solo non-stop flight around the world), the X-47A Pegasus unmanned combat air vehicle demonstrator, and structural work on the Stratolaunch carrier aircraft, the largest aircraft by wingspan ever flown. Northrop Grumman acquired full ownership of Scaled Composites on 24 August 2007, and the company now operates as a wholly owned Northrop Grumman subsidiary specialising in composite-structure design, prototype fabrication and flight test services for aerospace and defense customers, rather than as an independent spacecraft developer. Scaled Composites remains active, employing several hundred staff at its Mojave facility under president Greg Morris.

Celestis, founded in 1994 and based in Houston, Texas, is a launch services provider specializing in memorial spaceflights. The company offers a unique service enabling customers to launch a symbolic portion of cremated remains into space, providing a novel and enduring memorial experience. Celestis facilitates both suborbital and orbital missions, allowing for varying degrees of space exposure and duration. While specific technological details are not publicly emphasized, Celestis’ core capability lies in integrating memorial payloads with existing launch vehicles and managing the logistical complexities of spaceflight. This includes payload preparation, mission planning, and coordination with launch providers. The company effectively bridges the gap between the growing space access market and a desire for distinctive memorialization options. Celestis has successfully flown numerous missions, sending remains into space on a variety of rockets and trajectories. These missions represent a tangible fulfillment of a growing interest in space-based memorialization. Celestis occupies a unique niche within the broader space industry. It is currently the primary provider of dedicated memorial spaceflight services, differentiating itself through a highly specialized offering that appeals to individuals seeking a profoundly symbolic and lasting tribute.

Gateway Spaceport is a United States-based company focused on the development of rotating space stations designed to simulate varying levels of gravity. Their core business centers around creating orbital infrastructure capable of replicating both lunar and Martian gravity environments. This unique capability positions them within the emerging market of in-space research and development, as well as space tourism. The company’s primary technological focus is on the engineering and construction of large-scale rotating structures in orbit. While specific details regarding construction methods or materials are not publicly available, the core concept relies on centrifugal force generated by rotation to create artificial gravity, addressing a significant challenge for long-duration space habitation and biological research. This allows for studies that are difficult or impossible to conduct on Earth or in traditional zero-gravity environments. Currently, Gateway Spaceport is building a community base to support their vision, indicating a pre-operational stage focused on development and outreach. No specific missions, customers, or completed projects are currently publicized. Gateway Spaceport differentiates itself by concentrating on artificial gravity as a key feature of its space station design. This specialization targets a niche within the broader space station market, potentially attracting research institutions and private companies seeking to conduct gravity-dependent experiments or prepare for long-duration missions to the Moon and Mars, as well as offering a novel experience for space tourists.