Orbital space tourists & spaceflight participants

Kris Christiaens

Read Time: 3 mins

Published: 27 December 2021

Over the past few decades, several people have paid a lot of money to go to space. These people are often called "space tourists" or "spaceflight participants" and stay in orbit for several days. There are several different types of space tourism, including orbital, suborbital and lunar space tourism. Between 2001 and 2010, seven space tourists made eight orbital spaceflights aboard a Russian Soyuz spacecraft to the International Space Station, organized by the American space tourism company and travel agency Space Adventures. In September 2021, SpaceX’s Inspiration4 mission kicked off the company’s orbital tourism program by bringing four space tourists into space. In this overview you can learn all about the different people who paid to go to space for a short stay in orbit!

Overview orbital space tourists & spaceflight participants

Name	Date launch	Date landing	Rocket	Spacecraft	Mission / Destination	Fee paid
Toyohiro Akiyama	02/12/1990	10/12/1990	Soyuz-TM	Soyuz TM-11	Tokyo Broadcasting System Mir Space Station	USA$25 million
Helen Sharman	18/05/1991	26/05/1991	Soyuz-TM	Soyuz TM-12	Project Juno Mir Space Station	UK£7 million
Dennis Tito	28/04/2001	06/05/2001	Soyuz-TM	Soyuz TM-32	International Space Station	US$20 million
Mark Shuttleworth	25/04/2002	05/05/2002	Soyuz-TM	Soyuz TM-34	International Space Station	?
Gregory Olsen	01/10/2005	10/10/2005	Soyuz-TMA	Soyuz TMA-7	International Space Station	?
Anousheh Ansari	20/09/2006	29/09/2006	Soyuz-TMA	Soyuz TMA-9	International Space Station	?
Charles Simonyi	07/04/2007 26/03/2009	21/04/2007 08/04/2009	Soyuz-TMA	Soyuz TMA-10 Soyuz TMA-14	International Space Station	?
Richard Garriott	12/10/2008	24/10/2008	Soyuz-TMA	Soyuz TMA-13	International Space Station	US$30 million
Guy Laliberté	30/09/2009	11/10/2009	Soyuz-TMA	Soyuz TMA-16	International Space Station	US$35 million
Jared Isaacman	16/09/2021	19/09/2021	Falcon 9	Crew Dragon Resiliance	Inspiration4 (Low Earth Orbit)	?
Sian Proctor	16/09/2021	19/09/2021	Falcon 9	Crew Dragon Resiliance	Inspiration4 (Low Earth Orbit)	?
Hayley Arceneaux	16/09/2021	19/09/2021	Falcon 9	Crew Dragon Resiliance	Inspiration4 (Low Earth Orbit)	?
Christopher Sembroski	16/09/2021	19/09/2021	Falcon 9	Crew Dragon Resiliance	Inspiration4 (Low Earth Orbit)	?
Yulia Peresild	05/10/2021	17/10/2021	Soyuz-2.1a	Soyuz MS-19	International Space Station	?
Klim Shipenko	05/10/2021	17/10/2021	Soyuz-2.1a	Soyuz MS-19	International Space Station	?
Yusaku Maezawa	08/12/2021	20/12/2021	Soyuz-2.1a	Soyuz MS-20	International Space Station	?
Yozo Hirano	08/12/2021	20/12/2021	Soyuz-2.1a	Soyuz MS-20	International Space Station	?
Larry Connor	08/04/2022	25/04/2022	Crew Dragon Endeavour	Axiom Mission 1	International Space Station	US$55 million
Mark Pathy	08/04/2022	25/04/2022	Crew Dragon Endeavour	Axiom Mission 1	International Space Station	US$55 million
Eytan Stibbe	08/04/2022	25/04/2022	Crew Dragon Endeavour	Axiom Mission 1	International Space Station	US$55 million

Images: Space Adventures / NASA / SpaceX

Kris Christiaens

This article was published by FutureSpaceFlight founder and chief editor Kris Christiaens. Kris Christiaens has been passionate and fascinated by spaceflight and space exploration all his life and has written hundreds of articles on space projects, the commercial space industry and space missions over the past 20 years for magazines, books and websites. In late 2021, he founded the website FutureSpaceFlight with the goal of promoting new space companies and commercial space projects and compiling news of these start-ups and companies on one website.