While the latest visitor numbers point to another record year for Hawai‘i, there’s a new frontier in tourism. The race to put tourists in space is picking up speed with some new contenders in Asia. HPR’s Bill Dorman has more in today’s Asia Minute.
Two well-known Japanese corporate names are joining forces in the growing field of space tourism.
ANA Airlines is teaming up with H.I.S.—the country’s largest publicly-traded travel agent.
The initial investment is relatively small, the companies are chipping in nearly half a million dollars between the two of them to back a company called PD Aerospace.
That company’s main project is developing a reusable vehicle that will take as many as 8 people into space at once with a target delivery date within seven years.
There are bigger players in this space, and more than one billionaire.
Those include Richard Branson and his Virgin Galactic group. As well as Blue Origin, the company started by Amazon founder Jeff Bezos.
Elon Musk has ambitious goals for his Space Exploration Technologies, or “SpaceX” company, including colonizing Mars.
For some companies, the goals are more modest.
Kuang-Chi Science of China wants to send its passengers into sub-orbital space—high enough to hit zero gravity, but not far enough to require a space suit.
Kuang-Chi plans to deliver its service at a lower price than its competitors—but even sub-orbital travel is not cheap.
A ticket on this ride is likely to go for about one hundred thousand dollars.
