On April 14, 2025, Blue Origin launched six girls – Aisha Bowe, Amanda Nguyễn, Gayle King, Katy Perry, Kerianne Flynn and Lauren Sánchez – on a suborbital journey to the sting of house.
The headlines referred to as it a historic second for ladies in house. However as a tourism educator, I paused – not as a result of I questioned their expertise, however as a result of I questioned the language. Had been they astronauts or house vacationers? The excellence issues – not only for accuracy, however for understanding how expertise, symbolism and motivation form journey immediately.
In tourism research, my colleagues and I usually ask what motivates journey and makes it a significant expertise. These girls crossed a boundary by leaving Earth’s floor. However in addition they stepped into an argument a few symbolic one: the blurred line between astronaut and vacationer, between scientific achievement and curated expertise.
This flight wasn’t simply concerning the altitude they flew to – it was about what it meant. As business house journey turns into extra accessible to civilians, extra persons are becoming a member of spaceflights not as scientists or mission specialists, however as invited visitors or paying members. The road between astronaut and house vacationer is turning into more and more blurred.
Blue Origin’s NS-31 flight introduced six girls to the sting of house.
In my very own work, I discover how vacationers discover that means in the best way their journeys are framed. A tourism research perspective will help unpack how experiences just like the Blue Origin flight are designed, marketed and finally understood by vacationers and the tourism trade.
So, have been these passengers astronauts? Not within the conventional sense. They weren’t chosen by means of NASA’s rigorous coaching protocols, nor have been they conducting analysis or exploration in orbit.
As an alternative, they belong to a brand new class: house vacationers. These are members in a crafted, symbolic journey that displays how business spaceflight is redefining what it means to go to house.
House tourism as a distinct segment market
House tourism has its origins in 1986 with the launch of the Mir house station, which later turned the primary orbital platform to host nonprofessional astronauts. Within the Nineteen Nineties and early 2000s, Mir and its successor, the Worldwide House Station, welcomed a handful of privately funded civilian visitors – most notably U.S. businessman Dennis Tito in 2001, usually cited as the primary house vacationer.
House tourism has since developed into a distinct segment market promoting transient encounters to the sting of Earth’s environment. Whereas passengers on the NS-31 flight didn’t buy their seats, the expertise mirrors these offered by business house tourism suppliers akin to Virgin Galactic.
Like different types of area of interest tourism – wellness retreats, heritage trails or excessive adventures – house journey appeals to these drawn to novelty, exclusivity and standing, no matter whether or not they bought the ticket.
These suborbital flights might final simply minutes, however they provide one thing much more lasting: status, private storytelling and the sensation of collaborating in one thing uncommon. House tourism sells the expertise of being someplace few have visited, not the vacation spot itself. For a lot of, even a 10-minute flight can fulfill a deeply private milestone.
Vacationer motivation and house tourism’s evolution
The push-and-pull idea in tourism research helps clarify why individuals would possibly need to pursue house journey. Push components – inner needs akin to curiosity, an urge to flee or an eagerness to achieve fame – spark curiosity. Pull components – exterior components akin to wishing to see the view of Earth from above or expertise the feeling of weightlessness – improve the enchantment.
House tourism faucets into each. It’s fueled by the inner drive to do one thing extraordinary and the exterior attraction of a extremely choreographed, emotional expertise.
Members in house tourism put on branded jumpsuits with the corporate’s brand, pose for photographs and speak to the media about their expertise.
AP Photograph/Tony Gutierrez
These flights are sometimes branded – not essentially with flashy logos, however by means of storytelling and design decisions that make the expertise really feel iconic. For instance, whereas the New Shepard rocket the ladies traveled in doesn’t carry a separate emblem, it options the corporate’s identify, Blue Origin, in daring letters alongside the facet. Passengers put on personalised flight fits, pose for preflight photographs and obtain mission patches or certificates, all designed to echo the rituals {of professional} house missions.
What’s being offered is an “astronaut-for-a-day” expertise: emotionally highly effective, visually compelling and wealthy with symbolism. However below tourism classifications, these vacationers are house vacationers – members in a curated, short-duration tour.
Illustration and advertising expertise
The picture from the Blue Origin flight of six girls boarding a rocket was framed as a symbolic victory – a girl-power second designed for visibility and celebration – nevertheless it was additionally fastidiously curated.
This wasn’t the primary time girls entered house. Since its inception, NASA has chosen 61 girls as astronaut candidates, lots of them making groundbreaking contributions to house science and exploration. Sally Journey, Mae Jemison, Christina Koch and Jessica Meir not solely entered house – they skilled as astronauts and contributed considerably to science, engineering and long-duration missions. Their journeys marked historic achievements in house exploration quite than curated moments in tourism.
Recognizing their legacy is essential as business spaceflight creates new sorts of distinctive, tailor-made experiences, ones formed extra by media efficiency than by scientific milestones.
The Blue Origin flight was not a scientific mission however quite was framed as a symbolic occasion. In tourism, corporations, entrepreneurs and media retailers usually create these performances to maximise their visibility. SpaceX has taken an analogous strategy with its Inspiration4 mission, turning a personal orbital flight into a worldwide media occasion full with a Netflix documentary and emotional storytelling.
The Blue Origin flight offered a sense of progress whereas mixing the roles between astronaut and visitor. For Blue Origin, the symbolic worth was important. By launching the primary all-female crew into suborbital house, the corporate was capable of declare a historic milestone – one which aligned them with inclusion – with out the price, complexity or danger related to a scientific mission. In doing so, they generated huge media consideration.
Tourism schooling and media literacy
In immediately’s world, house journey is all concerning the story that will get informed concerning the flight. From curated visuals to social media posts and press protection, a lot of the expertise’s that means is formed by advertising and media.
Understanding that course of issues – not only for students or trade insiders, however for members of the general public, who comply with these journeys by means of the narratives produced by the businesses’ advertising groups and media retailers.
One other idea in tourism research describes how locations evolve over time – from exploration, to growth, to mass adoption. Many types of tourism start in an exploration part, accessible solely to the rich or nicely linked. For instance, the Grand Tour of Europe was as soon as a ceremony of passage for aristocrats. Its legacy helped form and develop trendy journey.
As extra individuals journey to a vacation spot over time, it strikes by means of the tourism space life cycle. Through the early exploration part, the vacation spot has just a few vacationers.
Coba56/Wikimedia Commons
Proper now, house tourism is within the exploration stage. It’s costly, unique and obtainable solely to some. There’s restricted infrastructure to help it, and firms are nonetheless experimenting with what the expertise ought to seem like. This isn’t mass tourism but, it’s extra like a high-profile playground for early adopters, drawing media consideration and curiosity with each launch.
Advances in expertise, financial shifts and altering cultural norms can improve entry to distinctive locations that begin as out of bounds to a majority of vacationers. House tourism might be the subsequent to evolve this manner within the tourism trade. The way it’s framed now – who will get to go, how the members are labeled and the way their tales are informed – will set the tone transferring ahead. Understanding these journeys helps individuals see how society packages and sells an inspirational expertise lengthy earlier than most individuals can afford to affix the journey.
