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Space tourism is space travel for recreational, leisure or business purposes. A number of startup companies have sprung up in recent years, such as Virgin Galactic and XCOR Aerospace, hoping to create a sub-orbital space tourism industry. Orbital space tourism opportunities have been limited and expensive, with only the Russian Space Agency providing transport to date. The publicized price for flights brokered by Space Adventures to the International Space Station aboard a Russian Soyuz spacecraft have been US $20–40 million, during the period 2001–2009 when 7 space tourists made 8 space flights. Some space tourists have signed contracts with third parties to conduct certain research activities while in orbit. Russia halted orbital space tourism in 2010 due to the increase in the International Space Station crew size, using the seats for expedition crews that would have been sold to paying spaceflight participants.〔 Orbital tourist flights are planned to resume in 2015.〔http://www.spaceadventures.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=orbital.Orbital〕 As an alternative term to "tourism", some organizations such as the Commercial Spaceflight Federation use the term "personal spaceflight". The Citizens in Space project uses the term "citizen space exploration".〔(【引用サイトリンク】title=Citizen Exploration )〕 , multiple companies are offering sales of orbital and suborbital flights, with varying durations and creature comforts. ==Background== After early successes in space, much of the public saw intensive space exploration as inevitable. Those aspirations are memorialized in science fiction including Arthur C. Clarke's ''A Fall of Moondust'' and ''2001: A Space Odyssey'', Roald Dahl's ''Charlie and the Great Glass Elevator'', Joanna Russ's 1968 novel ''Picnic on Paradise'', and Larry Niven's Known Space stories. Lucian in the 2nd century AD in his book ''True History'' examines the idea of a crew of men whose ship travels to the Moon during a storm. Jules Verne also took up the theme of lunar visits in his books, ''From the Earth to the Moon'' and ''Around the Moon''. Robert A. Heinlein’s short story ''The Menace from Earth'', published in 1957, was one of the first to incorporate elements of a developed space tourism industry within its framework. During the 1960s and 1970s, it was common belief that space hotels would be launched by 2000. Many futurologists around the middle of the 20th century speculated that the average family of the early 21st century would be able to enjoy a holiday on the Moon. In the 1960s, Pan Am established a waiting list for future flights to the Moon, issuing free "First Moon Flights Club" membership cards to those who requested them. The end of the Space Race, culminating in the Moon landings, decreased the emphasis placed on space exploration by national governments〔 〕 and therefore led to decreased demands for public funding of manned space flights. 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Space tourism」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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