The New Shepard booster approaches landing April 14 throughout NS-31. Credit score: Blue Origin
On April 14, 2025, Blue Origin launched six ladies — Aisha Bowe, Amanda Nguyễn, Gayle King, Katy Perry, Kerianne Flynn and Lauren Sánchez — on a suborbital journey to the sting of area.
The headlines known as it a historic moment for women in space. 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. Have been they astronauts or area vacationers? The excellence issues — not only for accuracy, however for understanding how expertise, symbolism and motivation form journey in the present day.
In tourism research, my colleagues and I typically ask what motivates journey and makes it a significant expertise. These ladies crossed a boundary by leaving Earth’s floor. However in addition they stepped into an issue a couple of 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 area journey turns into more accessible to civilians, extra individuals are joining spaceflights not as scientists or mission specialists, however as invited visitors or paying individuals. The road between astronaut and area vacationer is turning into more and more blurred.
In my own work, I discover how vacationers discover that means in the best way their journeys are framed. A tourism research perspective might help unpack how experiences just like the Blue Origin flight are designed, marketed and finally understood by vacationers and the tourism trade.
So, had been these passengers astronauts? Not within the conventional sense. They weren’t chosen via NASA’s rigorous training protocols, nor had been they conducting analysis or exploration in orbit.
As an alternative, they belong to a brand new class: area vacationers. These are individuals in a crafted, symbolic journey that displays how business spaceflight is redefining what it means to go to area.
Area tourism as a distinct segment market
Area tourism has its origins in 1986 with the launch of the Mir space station, which later grew to become the primary orbital platform to host nonprofessional astronauts. Within the Nineteen Nineties and early 2000s, Mir and its successor, the Worldwide Area Station, welcomed a handful of privately funded civilian visitors — most notably U.S. businessman Dennis Tito in 2001, typically cited as the primary area vacationer.
Area tourism has since developed into a niche market promoting temporary encounters to the sting of Earth’s ambiance. Whereas passengers on the NS-31 flight didn’t buy their seats, the expertise mirrors these offered by business area tourism suppliers resembling Virgin Galactic.
Like different types of area of interest tourism — wellness retreats, heritage trails or extreme adventures — area 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 way more lasting: status, private storytelling and the sensation of taking part in one thing uncommon. Area tourism sells the experience of being somewhere 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 area tourism’s evolution
The push-and-pull theory in tourism research helps clarify why folks would possibly need to pursue area journey. Push components — inside wishes resembling curiosity, an urge to flee or an eagerness to realize fame — spark curiosity. Pull components — exterior components resembling wishing to see the view of Earth from above or expertise the feeling of weightlessness — improve the enchantment.
Area tourism faucets into each. It’s fueled by the interior drive to do one thing extraordinary and the exterior attraction of a extremely choreographed, emotional expertise.
These flights are sometimes branded — not essentially with flashy logos, however via 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 customized flight fits, pose for preflight images and obtain mission patches or certificates, all designed to echo the rituals {of professional} area missions.
What’s being offered is an “astronaut-for-a-day” expertise: emotionally highly effective, visually compelling and wealthy with symbolism. However underneath tourism classifications, these vacationers are area vacationers — individuals in a curated, short-duration tour.
Illustration and advertising and marketing expertise
The picture from the Blue Origin flight of six ladies boarding a rocket was framed as a symbolic victory — a girl-power second designed for visibility and celebration — however it was additionally rigorously curated.
This wasn’t the primary time women entered space. Since its inception, NASA has selected 61 women as astronaut candidates, lots of them making groundbreaking contributions to area science and exploration. Sally Journey, Mae Jemison, Christina Koch and Jessica Meir not solely entered area — they educated as astronauts and contributed considerably to science, engineering and long-duration missions. Their journeys marked historic achievements in area exploration somewhat 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 somewhat was framed as a symbolic occasion. In tourism, firms, entrepreneurs and media retailers typically create these performances to maximise their visibility. SpaceX has taken an analogous strategy with its Inspiration4 mission, turning a personal orbital flight into a world 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 area, 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 training and media literacy
In in the present day’s world, area journey is all concerning the story that will get advised 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 marketing and media.
Understanding that course of issues — not only for students or trade insiders, however for members of the general public, who observe these journeys via the narratives produced by the businesses’ marketing teams and media outlets.
Another theory in tourism studies describes how locations evolve over time — from exploration, to improvement, to mass adoption. Many types of tourism start in an exploration phase, accessible solely to the rich or nicely related. For instance, the Grand Tour of Europe was as soon as a ceremony of passage for aristocrats. Its legacy helped form and develop fashionable journey.
Proper now, area tourism is within the exploration stage. It’s costly, unique and out there solely to a couple. 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 know-how, financial shifts and altering cultural norms can improve entry to distinctive locations that begin as out of bounds to a majority of vacationers. Area tourism could possibly be the subsequent to evolve this manner within the tourism trade. The way it’s framed now — who will get to go, how the individuals are labeled and the way their tales are advised — will set the tone transferring ahead. Understanding these journeys helps folks see how society packages and sells an inspirational expertise lengthy earlier than most individuals can afford to hitch the journey.
Betsy Pudliner is Affiliate Professor of Hospitality and Know-how Innovation on the College of Wisconsin-Stout. Pudliner is affiliated with Worldwide Council of Resort, Restaurant and Institutional Educators. University of Wisconsin-Stout gives funding as a member of The Dialog US.
This text is republished from The Conversation underneath a Artistic Commons license. Learn the original article.
