Space tourism, which in recent months has witnessed a frenzy as billionaire-enthusiasts take turns to fly miles above the earth’s surface, has unveiled a multi-billion dollar economy. From SpaceX to Blue Origin to Virgin Galactic, the space transport companies have seen burgeoning demands for their high cost seats by wannabe astronauts in what has been described as “billionaires’ luxury trips.”
But as budding space tourism takes shape, and more people show interest in experiencing the full force of gravity through orbital and suborbital space flights, the United States Congress is seeing an opportunity to make more revenue for the government.
U.S. Rep. Earl Blumenauer (D-Oregon) plans to introduce legislation called the Securing Protections Against Carbon Emissions (SPACE) Tax Act, which would impose new excise taxes on space tourism trips. The exercise is targeted on commercial space flights carrying human passengers for purposes other than scientific research.
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“Space exploration isn’t a tax-free holiday for the wealthy. Just as normal Americans pay taxes when they buy airline tickets, billionaires who fly into space to produce nothing of scientific value should do the same, and then some,” Blumenauer said in a statement issued by his office.
“I’m not opposed to this type of space innovation,” added Blumenauer, a senior member of the House of Representatives’ Ways and Means Committee. “However, things that are done purely for tourism or entertainment, and that don’t have a scientific purpose, should in turn support the public good.”
Following a breakthrough in commercial space trips that was spearheaded by Elon Musk’s founded SpaceX last year, Virgin Galactic owned by British billionaire Sir Richard Branson and Blue Origin, owned by Amazon founder Jeff Bezos, have all registered successful flights carrying non-scientific travelers.
Last year, SpaceX successfully launched the Crew Dragon mission to mark a new era of commercial space transportation.
Over a year later, on July 20, Blue Origin launched its first crewed spaceflight, which coincided with Blumenauer’s unveiling of the SPACE Tax Act. Bezos’ Blue Origin’s New Shepard vehicle carried Bezos, his brother Mark, aviation pioneer Wally Funk and Dutch physics student Oliver Daemen to a suborbital space mission and back.
SpaceX offers orbital space flights while Virgin Galactic and Blue Origin do suborbital.
Branson had beaten Bezos to the space adventure following a surprise announcement about the first fully crewed spaceflight of Virgin Galactic’s VSS Unity suborbital spaceliner mission. It was scheduled nine days earlier than Bezos’.
But the spaceflight companies are all offering commercial services that are already attracting huge interest.
Blue Origin has already begun commercial operations that had passengers like Daemen – he was a paying customer. And Virgin Galactic aims to do so early next year, after performing a few more test flights this fall.
Virgin Galactic’s said its ticket sells for $250,000 for now. Blue Origin is yet to name its price although analysts expect it to be around $500,000. The company’s online auction ended on $28 million for a New Shepard seat last month. The anonymous auction winner, who was reportedly so busy to fly the mission with Bezos, was replaced by Daemen. SpaceX charges as much as $55 million for orbital flights.
In his statement, Blumenauer said the tax proposal is borne out of concern about the environmental impact of sending humans into space, especially when there is no scientific value associated with the launch. The number of trips to space are expected to increase, with Virgin Galactic planning to eventually launch a shuttle of passengers into space, on average, 32 hours, the statement said.
“While proponents of suborbital space flights point to transatlantic flights as having similar carbon footprints, these flights carry significantly more passengers and travel much farther. The result is space launches accounting for an estimated 60-times greater emissions than transatlantic flights on a per-passenger basis, enough to drive a car around the earth and more than twice the carbon budget recommended in the Paris Climate Agreement,” the statement added.
It explains that exemptions would be made available for NASA spaceflights for scientific research purposes, and in the case of flights where some passengers are working on behalf of NASA for scientific research purposes and others are not, the launch excise tax shall be the pro rata share of the non-NASA researchers.
There would be two taxation tiers, one for suborbital flights and another for missions that reach orbit. The statement did not reveal how much the tax would be in either case but said orbital flights will have more to pay in taxes.
Space tourism is expected to yield a $1.1 trillion economy in 2040, and by the SPACE Tax Act, the US government is already taking a position for its tax value.