Well, define "elite"... <img src="/images/icons/wink.gif" /><br /><br />So far every space tourist has been a billionaire. And so it will remain for quite some time to come. The day when "ordinary folk" can get a ride into orbit for only a month's salary (or even a year's) is very far into the future.<br /><br />Spaceflight is expensive and dangerous, and will remain so for as long as we use vertically launched chemical rockets to get into orbit (which we will use for the foreseeable future since it is the only practical way with today's technology).<br /><br />There will be huge amounts of chemically stored energy in large tanks that can rupture. There will be powerful engines with turbopumps that can let go (or as with Falcon, a great many small engines with a large number of turbopumps and other moving parts). There will be guidance and computer systems that can malfunction. So all of these parts need to be produced to the highest standard of quailty combined with redundancy where possible. And you need lots of measuring equipment and telemetry to confirm that all these parts work before liftoff. All of this means that launching a manned vehicle into orbit is a complicated task. You don't just strap in and turn the starter key. Complicated means expensive. Expensive means elite, either government employees or very rich people, or employees from very rich organizations etc.<br /><br /><br />There are 3 types of manned launch vehicles:<br />1: those that are expensive and safe<br />2: those that are cheap and unsafe<br />3: those that are expensive but still unsafe<br /><br />If someone tries to sell me a ticket for a ride on a cheap and safe launch vehicle, I'll say no thanks, because such a thing doesn't exist the way I see it. Of course things can probably be done cheaper than NASA's vehicles, but still not cheap enough so that launching, say, 8 or 10 of us "common folk" (who are not billionaires) can become economically viable.<br /><br />I think. <div class="Discussion_UserSignature"> <p><font color="#ff9900">----------------------------------</font></p><p><font color="#ff9900">My minds have many opinions</font></p> </div>