The short answer
If you want to go to orbit, it costs a reported $55-70 million and you buy it from Axiom Space, which flies private crews to the International Space Station on SpaceX's Crew Dragon. Axiom publishes no price; the range comes from press reports of what Ax-1 and India's Ax-4 seat cost. It is the only human spaceflight anyone will sell you today.
If you want a few minutes above the edge of space, the last price was $750,000 at Virgin Galactic, which reopened sales in April 2026. That tranche sold out; the company says the next one will cost more, and its first commercial flight on the new Delta-class ships is now planned for February 2027. The other suborbital operator, Blue Origin, stopped flying New Shepard in January 2026 for at least two years and is not selling seats.
If a balloon to 30 km counts (it is not space, but the view is most of the way there), Space Perspective priced seats at $125,000, but it nearly failed in 2025, was bought by a Spanish firm, and as of October 11, 2026 its website shows only a “Launching Soon” page. Everything else you will see priced online is either a chartered mission with no public price or a product that no longer exists.
Every price, dated and sourced
Prices as of October 11, 2026. A price without a date is a rumour; each row says when its figure was set and where it comes from.
| Operator | What you get | Price | Status | As of · source |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Axiom Space (on SpaceX Crew Dragon)Orbital | Private astronaut mission to the ISSMonths of training, launch, roughly two weeks aboard the station, return. Sold to governments and individuals; missions Ax-1 through Ax-4 flown. | ~$55-70 million per seat (reported) | On saleSelling: the only human spaceflight you can buy today | 2021 and 2025 reportsAxiom publishes no price. About $55 million a seat for Ax-1 (NPR, January 2021); about $70 million for India's Ax-4 seat, including a year of training (Business Insider, reported by WION, June 2025) |
| Virgin GalacticSuborbital | Delta-class suborbital flight, minutes of weightlessnessSeveral days of training at Spaceport America, the flight, a six-passenger cabin. Sales reopened in April 2026 with 50 seats at $750,000; the company says the next tranche will cost more and has not announced its price. | $750,000 tranche sold out | PendingNot flying yet: first commercial flight moved to February 2027; flight testing to start with a captive-carry flight in October 2026 | Aug 12, 2026Virgin Galactic Q2 2026 results (SEC Form 8-K); The Register (Apr 1, 2026) |
| Blue OriginSuborbital | New Shepard suborbital flight above the Kármán lineTwo days of training in West Texas, a ten-minute flight above the Kármán line in an autonomous capsule. | Not on sale (never published; seats were auctioned or sold privately) | PausedPaused: flights halted Jan 30, 2026 for at least two years to focus on the Blue Moon lander; 38 New Shepard flights flown | Jan 30, 2026Blue Origin release; NPR |
| Space PerspectiveStratospheric | Spaceship Neptune balloon to ~30 km, six hoursA pressurised capsule under a balloon, eight passengers, a lounge and a bathroom; no rocket, no weightlessness, no training. | $125,000 per seat (last published price; no bookings open) | PausedOn hold: furloughed almost all staff in January 2025, evicted from its Florida base in April 2025, acquired by Eos X Space in July 2025; its website shows only a "Launching Soon" page | Oct 11, 2026Interesting Engineering (2025); spaceperspective.com, checked Oct 11, 2026 |
| SpaceX (direct)Orbital | Private Crew Dragon free-flyer missions (Inspiration4, Polaris Dawn, Fram2)Multi-day orbital flights bought by a single sponsor who fills the seats. SpaceX does not sell individual tickets. | Undisclosed: chartered whole missions, not seats | PendingBy arrangement only | 2026Mission announcements; SpaceX publishes no price |
Orbital: what $55 million buys
An Axiom mission is the closest thing to being a professional astronaut that money can buy: months of training at Axiom and SpaceX facilities, a Falcon 9 launch from Florida in a Crew Dragon, roughly two weeks aboard the International Space Station doing research and outreach alongside the resident crew, and a splashdown return. Axiom has flown four such missions since 2022, mostly with seats bought by national governments (Saudi Arabia, Turkey, Italy, Hungary, India, Poland), which is why the reported price range is wide: government seats bundle science programmes and national-astronaut status that individuals do not need.
SpaceX also flies private Crew Dragon missions that do not visit the station (Inspiration4 in 2021, Polaris Dawn in 2024, Fram2 over the poles in 2025), but those are whole missions chartered by a single sponsor who chooses the crew. SpaceX publishes no price and sells no individual seats.
What would change the orbital price is a cheaper ride to orbit or somewhere new to stay: Starship flying people, or the commercial stations Axiom, Vast and others are building to replace the ISS. Our Axiom vs Vast comparison and Starship tracker follow both.
Suborbital: $750,000 and rising
A suborbital flight goes straight up past the edge of space and comes straight back: a few minutes of weightlessness, the black sky and the curved horizon, then landing within the hour. Two companies built vehicles for it and, as of October 11, 2026, neither is carrying tourists.
Virgin Galactic retired its first spaceplane, VSS Unity, after its final commercial flight, Galactic 07, on June 8, 2024, and has been building the six-passenger Delta class since. It reopened sales in April 2026 with 50 seats at $750,000; on August 12, 2026 it said that tranche was oversubscribed and sold out, that the next tranche would cost more, and that its first commercial flight had moved from the fourth quarter of 2026 to February 2027, with flight testing starting with a captive-carry flight in October 2026. Unity's last flight reached 54.4 miles (about 87.5 km), above the 50-mile line the US uses for astronaut wings but below the 100 km Kármán line.
Blue Origin flew paying passengers on New Shepard from 2021 until January 2026, above the Kármán line, and never published a price: the first seat went at auction for $28 million and later ones sold privately. On January 30, 2026 the company halted New Shepard for at least two years to put its people on the Blue Moon lunar lander for NASA, keeping what it called a multi-year customer backlog. It is not selling seats. Our Virgin Galactic vs Blue Origin page has the two vehicles side by side.
Balloons: the $125,000 ticket on hold
Space Perspective's Spaceship Neptune is a pressurised capsule carried by a balloon to about 30 km, not space by any definition, but high enough for the curvature of the Earth and the black sky, over a six-hour flight with a lounge and a bathroom and no training, weightlessness or rocket. It flew an uncrewed test capsule to about 100,000 feet in September 2024, then furloughed almost its entire staff in January 2025 and was evicted from its Florida base in April before being acquired by the Spanish company Eos X Space in July 2025. Its seats were priced at $125,000; as of October 11, 2026 its website shows only a “Launching Soon” page and no booking.
If bookings reopen, treat a deposit as a deposit with a start-up, and read the refund terms.
Prices you will still see quoted that are gone
- dearMoon (Starship around the Moon). Cancelled June 2024 by its sponsor after Starship delays. Any page still quoting a circumlunar ticket is describing a mission that no longer exists.
- Soyuz seats to the ISS via Space Adventures. The original space tourism product (a reported $20 million for Dennis Tito in 2001). The last Space Adventures clients, Yusaku Maezawa and Yozo Hirano, launched on December 8, 2021.
- Virgin Galactic VSS Unity. Retired after Galactic 07, its final commercial flight, on June 8, 2024. The $450,000 (2021) and $600,000 (2023) prices are historical, and the $750,000 tranche of 2026 has sold out.
How to actually book
- Orbital: contact Axiom Space directly. Expect a screening conversation before any price; missions are assembled a year or more ahead.
- Suborbital: Virgin Galactic sells through its own site in tranches; the $750,000 one has sold out and the company says the next will cost more. When it opens, ask which tranche and price you are in, and what happens to the deposit if Delta's schedule slips. Blue Origin is not selling.
- Balloon: Space Perspective has no booking open. If it reopens, given the company's 2025, ask about escrow.
- Cheaper ways to get most of the experience: a parabolic zero-g flight with Zero Gravity Corporation lists at $8,900 plus tax a seat (booked more than 60 days ahead, checked October 11, 2026), and a launch viewed in person from a public beach or park is free: our watch-a-launch guides cover every site.
Where prices are going
Up, so far. The suborbital seat that cost $450,000 in 2021 cost $750,000 in 2026, that tranche sold out, and Virgin Galactic says the next will cost more. Supply is small: a Delta-class ship carries six people, and Blue Origin's pause removes the other operator. In April 2026 Virgin Galactic said it planned to reach ten or more flights a month within a year (The Register); whether a flight rate like that arrives is what decides the suborbital price.
Orbital prices are a rocket-price problem. A Falcon 9 seat on a four-person Dragon is a fraction of a $74 million list-price launch plus the spacecraft, training and station time; the number only moves substantially if Starship starts flying people, which has no date, or if the commercial stations offer a cheaper place to stay. Our launch-cost guide tracks the rocket side of that equation live.
Frequently asked
How much does it cost to go to space in 2026?
From $750,000 to about $70 million, depending on what you mean by space. The last suborbital rocket seats sold were $750,000 at Virgin Galactic, and that tranche has sold out; an orbital mission to the International Space Station is roughly $55-70 million a seat through Axiom Space, by press reports (Axiom publishes no price). Only the orbital seat is a flight you can actually book today.
Can I buy a ticket to space right now?
Only through Axiom Space: an orbital ISS mission at a reported $55-70 million. Virgin Galactic sold out its $750,000 tranche, says the next one will cost more, and plans its first commercial Delta flight for February 2027. Blue Origin paused New Shepard in January 2026 for at least two years and is not selling seats. Space Perspective, the balloon company, has no bookings open.
How much is a Virgin Galactic ticket?
The most recent price was $750,000 a seat, when sales reopened in April 2026, up from $450,000 in 2021 and $600,000 in 2023. That tranche of 50 seats was oversubscribed and sold out, Virgin Galactic said on August 12, 2026; it expects to release a new tranche at higher prices this fall and has not announced the price. Its first commercial flight on the new Delta-class ships is planned for February 2027.
How much is a Blue Origin ticket?
Blue Origin never published a New Shepard price; the first seat was auctioned for $28 million and later ones were sold privately, with figures in the hundreds of thousands reported but not confirmed. It does not matter this year: the company halted New Shepard flights on January 30, 2026 for at least two years.
Why is orbital so much more expensive than suborbital?
Energy and time. A suborbital flight reaches about 100 km and falls back within minutes; orbit requires roughly thirty times the kinetic energy, a heat shield to come home, life support for days, and a seat on a rocket that costs tens of millions to fly. The orbital price is mostly the rocket and the spacecraft; the suborbital price is mostly the company's development cost spread across a few hundred seats.
Do I need training or a medical?
Suborbital flights ask for a few days of training and a medical screening; most healthy adults qualify, and passengers in their eighties and nineties have flown. Orbital missions require months of training and a much stricter medical, closer to what professional astronauts pass.
Will prices come down?
Suborbital prices have gone up, not down. Virgin Galactic's seat rose 67 percent between 2021 and 2026 ($450,000 to $750,000), the $750,000 tranche sold out, and the company says the next one will cost more. Orbital prices track rocket prices, and the only thing that would move those substantially is Starship flying people routinely, which has no date.
Is space tourism safe?
No passenger has been hurt on a commercial spaceflight. Blue Origin's one failure was an uncrewed 2022 flight whose capsule escape system worked as designed; Virgin Galactic lost a pilot in a 2014 test flight of an earlier ship. Every operator flies under an FAA licence and passengers sign informed-consent waivers: the regulatory regime treats it as experimental, not as an airline.
Keep going
- Virgin Galactic vs Blue Origin: the two suborbital vehicles side by side.
- Axiom vs Vast: who is building the stations tourists will stay on next.
- What a rocket launch costs: the number underneath every orbital ticket.
- Watch a launch in person: the free version.
Prices are operator-stated or reported figures as of October 11, 2026, in US dollars, and change; confirm with the operator before paying a deposit. This page is not a booking service and receives nothing from any operator.