Only individuals chosen and trained by the world's superpowers were allowed to travel to space for many years. Then came Dennis Tito, a man who left NASA and amassed wealth in finance, which he then utilised to get to space. Although he had to practise with the Russians for months, Tito is not a professional.

He is a self-funded, amateur astronaut who paid for a stay on the International Space Station in 2001 on his own dime. He now wants to make a lunar return trip aboard the SpaceX Starship.

Twenty years after Tito's initial trip, the space tourism industry is at last starting to take off. 46 private travellers were flown by companies in slightly over a year. Wealthy people may now purchase a wide range of experiences, from a few minutes spent floating just beyond the edge of space to lengthy orbital journeys and beyond.

Billionaires Jared Isaacman and Yusaku Maezawa paid for flights and took off for orbit. As a sign of assurance and, ultimately, proof of concept for their common objective of transporting people to and from space, Jeff Bezos and Richard Branson flew on the spacecraft of their respective firms.

There have been rumours that Tom Cruise will shoot a movie in space, Axiom is scheduling yearly flights, private space stations like Starlab are partnering with hotels like Hilton, and Isaacman has already purchased three more SpaceX flights, including punching his ticket for the first crewed Starship mission.

Even though human spaceflight receives the most of attention (while the mundane satellites provide practically all of the revenue), tourism won't significantly impact the global space economy for another ten years. And certainly, space travel is now reserved for the wealthy and those who are fortunate enough to accompany them.

But even so, that's fantastic news. Before, even the richest people couldn't afford it. SpaceX director Aarti Matthews made the following claim yesterday while explaining why Tito's return to space is significant: 'It puts us on a very definite step towards airline-like operations. '