How Much Does It Cost to Send a Person to Space?
Short answer: A few minutes of weightlessness above the Kármán line costs about $450,000–$600,000 on Virgin Galactic; Blue Origin does not publish New Shepard prices, but auctioned and reported seats have ranged from under $1 million to $28 million for the first flight. Reaching orbit is a different league: a seat on a SpaceX Crew Dragon flying a private mission with Axiom Space runs roughly $55–70 million, and NASA pays SpaceX about $70 million per astronaut seat under its commercial crew contracts. A stay aboard the ISS adds NASA's per-day fees for life support, crew time and cargo.
List and rideshare prices as of 2026-09-01. Figures track the launch cost guide; contract prices vary.
Price by option
| Option | Price | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Suborbital, Virgin Galactic (Unity/Delta) | ~$450k–$600k | About 90 minutes door to door, a few minutes of weightlessness |
| Suborbital, Blue Origin New Shepard | Undisclosed | Reported seats from ~$1M; first-flight auction seat $28M |
| Orbital, private mission (Crew Dragon via Axiom) | ~$55M–$70M per seat | Multi-day free-flyer or ISS visit; training included |
| NASA commercial crew seat (Crew Dragon) | ~$70M | Government price per astronaut, six-month ISS rotation |
| Soyuz seat (historical, 2010s) | $20M–$90M | Rose from ~$20M to ~$90M as the US lost its own capability |
| Future: Starship passenger flights | Unpriced | SpaceX has spoken of tens of thousands of dollars per seat at scale; nothing is on sale |
The costs that are not on the price list
- Training: days for suborbital, months for orbital.
- Medical screening and, for orbital flights, insurance that many carriers will not write.
- Deposits are large and non-refundable in part; waiting lists run years.
- For ISS visits, NASA charges for crew time, life support, cargo up and down, and data.
Frequently asked
How much is a ticket to space with Virgin Galactic?
About $600,000 for seats sold since 2022; earlier deposits were taken at $250,000 and $450,000. The company paused sales while it builds its Delta-class ships.
How much does it cost to go to the ISS as a tourist?
Private astronaut missions with Axiom Space have been reported at $55–70 million per seat, including training and a stay of one to two weeks.
Why is orbit so much more expensive than suborbital?
Orbit needs about 28,000 km/h and a heat shield to come home; suborbital needs about 3,500 km/h and a parachute. The energy, the vehicle and the risk are all an order of magnitude larger.
Run your own numbers
Mass, orbit, vehicle, insurance: the calculator does the delivered-cost math.
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