Wealthy Adventurers Could Turn Space Travel Into A $1.6 Billion Industry

10-20-2012 • http://www.businessinsider.com, Alex Davies

The report, 'Suborbital Reusable Vehicles: A 10-Year Forecast of Market Demand,' was funded by the Federal Aviation Administration Office of Commercial Space Transportation and Space Florida, and produced by The Tauri Group.

It breaks the suborbital reusable vehicle (SRV) industry into eight markets, among which commercial human spaceflight (aka space tourism) is dominant, accounting for 80 percent of predicted trips.

That market is driven by extremely wealthy "space enthusiasts," 925 of whom already have made reservations to fly into space. In the growth scenario outlined in the report, that number could climb to 11,000 over the next ten years.

The more conservative baseline scenario predicts 3,600 seats on suborbital flights will be filled, generating $600 million. The constrained scenario, calculated based on shrinking budgets, predicts 2,000, for $300 million.