SpaceShipOne

In the 1950s, the world was amazed by the first flights into space. People were even more amazed in 1969 by the sight of men landing on the moon. In this period, the ‘Space Age’, astronauts and cosmonauts were celebrated as heroes. Most people did not think space flight would ever be possible for the rest of us, until now, with the growth of space tourism. The first space tourists were extremely rich. They paid a lot to fly on government-built ships. However, now there are many private companies building spaceships. The first of these, SpaceShipOne briefly flew to space in June 2004. In the next 10 to 15 years, more and more people will travel to space and flights will become much cheaper. There are already thousands of people excitedly waiting for the chance.