On April 14, 2025, Blue Starting place introduced six ladies – Aisha Bowe, Amanda Nguyễn, Gayle King, Katy Perry, Kerianne Flynn and Lauren Sánchez – on a suborbital adventure to the brink of house.
The headlines known as it a ancient second for girls in house. However as a tourism educator, I paused – now not as a result of I puzzled their enjoy, however as a result of I puzzled the language. Had been they astronauts or house vacationers? The dignity issues – now not only for accuracy, however for working out how enjoy, symbolism and motivation form commute lately.
In tourism research, my colleagues and I regularly ask what motivates commute and makes it a significant enjoy. Those ladies crossed a boundary by means of leaving Earth’s floor. However additionally they stepped into an argument a few symbolic one: the blurred line between astronaut and vacationer, between medical fulfillment and curated enjoy.
This flight wasn’t with regards to the altitude they flew to – it was once about what it intended. As business house commute turns into extra available to civilians, extra individuals are becoming a member of spaceflights now not as scientists or undertaking experts, however as invited visitors or paying members. The road between astronaut and house vacationer is changing into more and more blurred.
Blue Starting place’s NS-31 flight introduced six ladies to the brink of house.
In my very own paintings, I discover how vacationers in finding which means in the way in which their trips are framed. A tourism research standpoint can lend a hand unpack how stories just like the Blue Starting place flight are designed, advertised and in the end understood by means of vacationers and the tourism trade.
So, have been those passengers astronauts? Now not within the conventional sense. They weren’t decided on via NASA’s rigorous coaching protocols, nor have been they undertaking analysis or exploration in orbit.
As a substitute, they belong to a brand new class: house vacationers. Those are members in a crafted, symbolic adventure that displays how business spaceflight is redefining what it way to visit house.
Area tourism as a distinct segment marketplace
Area tourism has its origins in 1986 with the release of the Mir house station, which later become the primary orbital platform to host nonprofessional astronauts. Within the Nineteen Nineties and early 2000s, Mir and its successor, the World Area Station, welcomed a handful of privately funded civilian visitors – maximum significantly U.S. businessman Dennis Tito in 2001, regularly cited as the primary house vacationer.
Area tourism has since advanced into a distinct segment marketplace promoting temporary encounters to the brink of Earth’s environment. Whilst passengers at the NS-31 flight didn’t acquire their seats, the enjoy mirrors the ones bought by means of business house tourism suppliers equivalent to Virgin Galactic.
Like different kinds of area of interest tourism – wellness retreats, heritage trails or excessive adventures – house commute appeals to these interested in novelty, exclusivity and standing, without reference to whether or not they bought the price tag.
Those suborbital flights might remaining simply mins, however they provide one thing way more lasting: status, private storytelling and the sensation of taking part in one thing uncommon. Area tourism sells the enjoy of being someplace few have visited, now not the vacation spot itself. For lots of, even a 10-minute flight can satisfy a deeply private milestone.
Vacationer motivation and house tourism’s evolution
The frenzy-and-pull concept in tourism research is helping give an explanation for why other people may need to pursue house commute. Push elements – inside wants equivalent to interest, an urge to flee or a fervour to achieve repute – spark passion. Pull elements – exterior components equivalent to wishing to peer the view of Earth from above or enjoy the feeling of weightlessness – beef up the enchantment.
Area tourism faucets into each. It’s fueled by means of the inner force to do one thing strange and the exterior appeal of a extremely choreographed, emotional enjoy.
Individuals in house tourism put on branded jumpsuits with the corporate’s emblem, pose for footage and communicate to the media about their enjoy.
AP Picture/Tony Gutierrez
Those flights are regularly branded – now not essentially with flashy trademarks, however via storytelling and design alternatives that make the enjoy really feel iconic. As an example, whilst the New Shepard rocket the ladies traveled in doesn’t raise a separate logo, it options the corporate’s title, Blue Starting place, in daring letters alongside the aspect. Passengers put on personalised flight fits, pose for preflight footage and obtain undertaking patches or certificate, all designed to echo the rituals {of professional} house missions.
What’s being bought is an “astronaut-for-a-day” enjoy: emotionally tough, visually compelling and wealthy with symbolism. However underneath tourism classifications, those vacationers are house vacationers – members in a curated, short-duration tour.
Illustration and advertising and marketing enjoy
The picture from the Blue Starting place flight of six ladies boarding a rocket was once framed as a symbolic victory – a girl-power second designed for visibility and party – nevertheless it was once additionally moderately curated.
This wasn’t the primary time ladies entered house. Since its inception, NASA has decided on 61 ladies as astronaut applicants, lots of them making groundbreaking contributions to house science and exploration. Sally Journey, Mae Jemison, Christina Koch and Jessica Meir now not handiest entered house – they educated as astronauts and contributed considerably to science, engineering and long-duration missions. Their trips marked ancient achievements in house exploration quite than curated moments in tourism.
Spotting their legacy is necessary as business spaceflight creates new sorts of distinctive, adapted stories, ones formed extra by means of media efficiency than by means of medical milestones.
The Blue Starting place flight was once now not a systematic undertaking however quite was once framed as a symbolic match. In tourism, corporations, entrepreneurs and media retailers regularly create those performances to maximise their visibility. SpaceX has taken a equivalent method with its Inspiration4 undertaking, turning a non-public orbital flight into an international media match whole with a Netflix documentary and emotional storytelling.
The Blue Starting place flight bought a sense of development whilst mixing the jobs between astronaut and visitor. For Blue Starting place, the symbolic worth was once vital. By means of launching the primary all-female group into suborbital house, the corporate was once in a position to assert a ancient milestone – person who aligned them with inclusion – with out the associated fee, complexity or chance related to a systematic undertaking. In doing so, they generated monumental media consideration.
Tourism training and media literacy
In lately’s international, house commute is all in regards to the tale that will get informed in regards to the flight. From curated visuals to social media posts and press protection, a lot of the enjoy’s which means is formed by means of advertising and marketing and media.
Working out that procedure issues – now not only for students or trade insiders, however for individuals of the general public, who apply those journeys throughout the narratives produced by means of the corporations’ advertising and marketing groups and media retailers.
Any other concept in tourism research describes how locations evolve through the years – from exploration, to construction, to mass adoption. Many kinds of tourism start in an exploration section, available handiest to the rich or smartly hooked up. As an example, the Grand Excursion of Europe was once as soon as a ceremony of passage for aristocrats. Its legacy assisted in shaping and increase fashionable commute.
As extra other people commute to a vacation spot through the years, it strikes throughout the tourism house existence cycle. All through the early exploration section, the vacation spot has just a few vacationers.
Coba56/Wikimedia Commons
Presently, house tourism is within the exploration level. It’s dear, unique and to be had handiest to a couple of. There’s restricted infrastructure to make stronger it, and firms are nonetheless experimenting with what the enjoy will have to appear to be. This isn’t mass tourism but, it’s extra like a high-profile playground for early adopters, drawing media consideration and interest with each and every release.
Advances in era, financial shifts and converting cultural norms can building up get entry to to distinctive locations that get started as out of bounds to a majority of holiday makers. Area tourism may well be the following to adapt this fashion within the tourism trade. The way it’s framed now – who will get to move, how the members are classified and the way their tales are informed – will set the tone transferring ahead. Working out those journeys is helping other people see how society applications and sells an inspirational enjoy lengthy ahead of most of the people can have enough money to sign up for the adventure.
