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Travel & Hospitality · Recorded milestone

Suborbital tourist flights

Recorded year2021

Virgin Galactic and Blue Origin fly their founders and paying customers briefly to the edge of space.

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Built on

Liquid-fuel rocketRecorded · 1926requires
Reusable orbital boosterRecorded · 2015enables

Led to

Balloon trips to the stratosphereForecast · ~2028enables
Orbital tourism at scaleForecast · ~2040enables
Rocket point-to-point travelForecast · ~2060enables
Routine trips to orbitForecast · ~2080enables

Sources & evidence

Additional source

Dataset updated 2026-10-18. This individual record has not been separately re-reviewed.