How much does it cost to go to space? Every price, dated

Suborbital seats: Virgin Galactic and Blue Origin

A suborbital flight goes up and comes straight back down: a few minutes of weightlessness and a view of the curve of the Earth, without going into orbit. Only two companies have flown paying passengers this way, and neither is flying today.

Mar 30, 2026

Unity flights paused after Galactic 07 in June 2024, after seven commercial spaceflights. Virgin Galactic 10-K for 2025, Mar 30, 2026

Aug 12, 2026

Commercial service expected to restart in February 2027 (flight tests from October 2026). Virgin Galactic 10-Q for Q2 2026, Aug 12, 2026

Oct 29, 2026

First Delta ship, Apeiron, unveiled; return to commercial flights moved to early Q2 2027, per Payload's report of the company's statement. Payload, Oct 29, 2026 (press report)

Blue Origin New Shepard

Not public

Blue Origin did not say what the April 14, 2025 flight with Katy Perry and Gayle King cost or who paid (AP). AP, via NZ Herald, Apr 14, 2025 (press report)

$28 million

Winning bid in the auction for the first seat; the money went to Blue Origin's Club for the Future foundation. Blue Origin, Jun 12, 2021

Status

Flights paused for "no less than two years" from January 30, 2026, after 38 flights that carried 98 people above the Kármán line. Blue Origin, Jan 30, 2026

What a seat to orbit costs

Governments are the only buyers whose seat prices have been audited and published. NASA's Inspector General put the numbers side by side in 2019: Russia's Soyuz cost NASA $55.4 million a seat on average from 2006, rising to $79.7 million for the last 12 seats, while SpaceX's Crew Dragon came in at about $55 million. That gap, and reusable boosters, is why a private seat to orbit exists at all.

Private seats to orbit

The first private space station, Vast's Haven-1, will take its first crew on a SpaceX Dragon. Vast has not published a seat price. When it does, it goes in this table the same day.

What NASA charges to stay on the ISS

A private astronaut buys the ride from a company (today, Axiom on SpaceX's Dragon). NASA then bills the mission for using the station. Its price table has not changed since April 29, 2021, when NASA said the 2019 prices "did not reflect full reimbursement" and raised them. The ride itself, training and medical care are not included.

Source: NASA, Commercial and Marketing Pricing Policy, Table B, Apr 29, 2021 (price table as published; read November 1, 2026). "Per bag" is NASA's Cargo Transfer Bag Equivalent, 48 x 41 x 23 cm.

So the station's fixed charges are $10 million a mission ($4.8 million for integration and $5.2 million of crew time), plus $90,040 to $167,500 a person a day for food, supplies and flying them up and back. That is our arithmetic from NASA's table, using its low and high ends.

These are the last prices for the ISS. When it retires around 2030 (see when the ISS comes down), the commercial stations set their own. Our station tracker logs each one's dates.

Balloon rides sold as trips to space

Several companies sell stratospheric balloon flights as "edge of space" travel. They reach 25 to 40 km, well below the 100 km Kármán line and the 50-mile line the US uses for astronaut wings, so they are not spaceflight.

Prices in the currency each company sells in; nothing converted.

Changes to this page

• Nov 1, 2026 · First published. Virgin Galactic prices from its SEC filings through August 12, 2026; NASA price table re-read from nasa.gov.