There have been many articles published over the last few years debating what title customers of commercial Human Spaceflight (HSF) providers should be referred to as e.g. astronaut, space tourist, etc.
This article is not about that.
The title individuals call themselves is not important. What is important is if they generate revenue for commercial HSF providers, e.g. Blue Origin, SpaceX, Boeing Space, and Axiom Space. The following table identifies 4 categories of commercial HSF customers and how they should be accounted for in the context of market sizing. In that context, a Government Astronaut and a Space Tourist are exactly the same – they both contribute revenue.
The above table was prepared for use in a report on the size of the commercial HSF market from 2001 to 2030. This report will be published in October.
For details on the practical differences between Government Astronauts and Space Tourists check out An Intro to Private Astronaut Preflight Training in Under 5 Minutes!
