PRiceS will coMe down in 15 yeaRS, SayS oFFicial

Commercial space travel could become affordable in the next few decades as necessary technology becomes more accessible, an official in the UAE’s space industry has said.

The comments follow the announcement that a Japanese billionaire has become the first private passenger to fly to the moon through SpaceX.

The ticket price to ride the BFR — the spacecraft that will go to the moon — is currently unknown, though, the development of the spacecraft alone is estimated at billions of dollars.

“I believe as more and more commercial companies enter the market, prices will come down and it will be more accessible,” assistant director-general of the Mohammed Bin Rashid Space Centre and manager of the UAE Astronaut Programme, Salem Al Marri, told Khaleej Times. “Starting with suborbital flights first, I think, they could become more accessible but costly in the coming 15 years. With regards to orbital flights, pricing will remain high for a while due to technology constraints and dangers of orbital flights.”

Earlier this year, former Nasa astronaut Mike Massimino told

Khaleej Times: “The first few people that are going to go, are going to pay a lot. When a new technology comes out, it’s expensive. But if you want it to be successful, you have to make it affordable. I think it’s their goal for tourism. With what SpaceX has been able to do, and other companies like Blue Origin, they’ll surely be able to fly people to space with paying customers and tourists. They can’t charge people a million dollars to go to space. Only a few people can pay that. So they’ll have to bring the price down and I think they will.” Massimino, is the first person to tweet from space. Tickets to the International Space Station for each astronaut — depending on from which country — is priced at more than $30 million. Tickets for Richard Branson’s Virgin Galactic cost between $200,000 and $250,000.