Conventional long-haul flights by aircraft could soon become outdated because Elon Musk plans to extend his space-related activities and fly passengers from one city to another in minutes. His SpaceX Starship could make a trip from London to New York in less than half an hour and to Sydney, in less than an hour. Flights of this nature that normally last more than 10 hours would use rockets and the journey would be through outer space.

Daily Mail UK reports the forecast was made by Swiss firm UBS.

It predicts a lucrative marker for point-to-point rocket Travel that is expected to be worth $19.7bn a year by 2030. In the opinion of the company, the Space Tourism industry will be a rapidly growing one and could be worth $3bn by 2030. Rockets will play a major part in future long-distance air travel on earth because the rockets will enter the upper atmosphere before returning to Earth.

Space tourism is the new frontier

SpaceX, Virgin Galactic, and Blue Origin are competitors in the race to promote space tourism. The concept of high-speed travel via outer space opens up new opportunities to capture the ever-growing market. Analysts with UBS agree that right now, this might sound far-fetched but the fact remains that some work has started.

Once the technology is mastered, space tourism could become a reality. A flight from London to Sydney normally takes 23 hours but with rocket technology, it could reduce to less than an hour.

The race to gain supremacy in space tourism is between Elon Musk, Sir Richard Branson and Jeff Bezos.

They have their SpaceX Starship, Virgin Galactic's SpaceShipTwo, and Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos' Blue Origin. Daily Mail UK adds that predictions for the space industry are bright. It is currently worth around $400bn billion and could nearly double by 2030. Airlines today carry 300 passengers on long-haul flights. In comparison, Elon Musk's Starship rockets have a capacity of 100.

Virgin Galactic charges $250,000 for a seat in one of its commercial flights. It did its inaugural flight to space in December 2018 followed by the second one on February 22.

Future of space tourism

According to CNBC, space tourism is a new concept and has a bright future with Virgin Galactic, SpaceX and Blue Origin in the fray. They will tap the potential of rockets that would be the mainstay of long-haul flights. This technology will cut down drastically on travel times. Those in the know believe once high-speed travel via outer space gains acceptance, space tourism could become a $3 billion market by 2030 with investors vying for attention.
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