Everybody Wants to Be an Astronaut

Study projects consumer demand for spaceflights could generate $1.6 billion.

Commercial suborbital spaceflights should bring in between $600 million and $1.6 billion in revenue in their first decade of operations, according to a study commissioned by the U.S. and Florida governments and released on Wednesday.

Tourism drives about 80 percent of the demand for suborbital flights, which reach about 63 miles (100 km) above the planet's surface before plunging back through the atmosphere.