For hundreds of thousands of dollars, you can purchase tickets to board an aircraft and blast to the limits of the Earth’s atmosphere. While billionaires like Jeff Bezos have already experienced this view from above with his enterprise, Blue Origin, other companies promise to launch their first customers into space by the end of this year. They hope to offer memorial services, off-planet DNA storage and even wedding ceremonies.
While commercial space travel currently carries an expensive price tag, these costs are falling and getting off planet is becoming more accessible all the time. But questions remain about the rules governing space flights and protecting passengers, and some argue the cart is being put before the horse unless a consensus is reached before commercial space flight truly takes off as an industry.
