Buy a share of space tourism. This is what the British entrepreneur Richard Branson wants to propose by proceeding to the IPO of his company Virgin Galactic, Monday, October 28. It will become the first company in the space tourism sector to take off on the financial markets.

Virgin Galactic has been preparing since its creation in 2004 to take civilians on a walk to the edge of space. The funds that the company hopes to raise on the occasion of its entry on the New York Stock Exchange must allow it to meet the deadlines set by Richard Branson: organize the first space trip in mid-2020.

A ticket to 250 000 dollars

The California company would become the first to use a private commercial launcher to send tourists into space. Russia had, until 2009, put its Soyuz rockets at disposal to organize several tourist stays aboard the International Space Station (ISS). Richard Branson has already booked his place to become the first passenger of his SpaceShipTwo, which must fly at about 83 km altitude. He will be accompanied by five other tourists among the more than 600 wealthy Terrians who have reserved their ticket for the modest sum of 250 000 dollars.

If Virgin Galactic achieves its goals, the company will take the lead over these two major US competitors: SpaceX and Blue Origin. The battle of space tourism can currently boil down to a fight of stars of Silicon Valley. Against Richard Branson, SpaceX is driven by serial entrepreneur Elon Musk, also known as the boss of the Tesla electric car brand, and Blue Origin belongs to Jeff Bezos, the richest man on Earth and CEO of Amazon.

It would also be a rematch of Virgin Galactic on the other two heavyweights in the sector. Until 2018, Richard Branson's company was the only one that failed to conduct a suborbital test flight, that is, to reach 100 km altitude. It finally arrived there in December 2018, catching up a little on SpaceX and Blue Origin who had already, both, reached this stage at the beginning of 2010.

A three billion dollar market

Since 2009, the dreams of the very rich to go on vacation in space were based on promises never held. Elon Musk, Richard Branson and Jeff Bezos have repeatedly postponed the date of the first suborbital tourist flight. Virgin Galactic's IPO could be a game changer: shareholder pressure should prompt the company to stick to its schedule.

These wealthy entrepreneurs are all the more eager to take the next step that the sector promises to be lucrative. In an analysis published in March 2019, the Swiss bank UBS predicts that space tourism could yield more than two billion dollars by 2030 if the first flights were organized before the end of this decade.

It could even be worth nearly $ 20 billion, if these companies were not limited to making occasional excursions for a few billionaires in need of thrills. For UBS, supersonic flights connecting cities such as Paris and Tokyo in less than 30 minutes could become the most lucrative business. This is one of the main bets of Elon Musk who promised, already in 2017, that his "Big F ** cking Rockets" (BFR, which is also the codename of the project ...) would reach it before 2022.

Space Hotels and Holiday Camps on Mars?

Who says tourists, also says space hotels. For the moment, it is NASA who is interested in this idea and has unveiled its plan to transform parts of the International Space Station (ISS) into a luxury hotel for multibillionaires from 2020. The US agency has planned to charge around $ 35,000 a night on the spot.

Other companies, such as SpaceX and Bigelow Space Operation are more likely to plant colonies on the moon or in space, on the model of Deep Space Nine, the space station of the series of the same name.

Elon Musk, meanwhile, squarely his head in the Martian clouds. "I want to die on Mars, and not during a crash," he said in 2013. He wants to send a first reconnaissance mission in 2022 to test the ground, to realize "the risks associated with colonization "of the planet, can be read on the site of SpaceX. On the other hand, the company remains much more vague about the date at which colonization should begin.

While waiting for these crazy dreams to become clearer, especially as regards the technological and financial feasibility, Guy Laliberté, the founder of Cirque du Soleil, remains the last space tourist. A privilege that cost him $ 35 million to spend nine days aboard the ISS.