Point-to-point people with purpose—Exploring the possibility of a commercial traveler market for point-to-point suborbital space transportation

An argument was made at the First Arcachon Conference on Private Human Access to Space in 2008 [1] that some systematic market research should be conducted into potential market segments for point-to-point suborbital space transportation (PtP), in order to understand whether a commercial market exists which might augment possible government use for such a vehicle. The cargo market potential was subsequently addressed via desk research, and the results, which resulted in a pessimistic business case outlook, were presented in [2]. The same desk research approach is now used in this paper to address the potential business and wealthy individual passenger traveler market segment (“point-to-point people with purpose”). The results, with the assumed ticket pricing, are not encouraging.

► An analysis is presented of potential point-to-point suborbital space transportation markets for passengers. ► An assessment is made of the likely range of ticket prices for PtP. ► Price elasticity of demand data from air travel, including Concorde, is assembled. ► It is concluded that no more than 100 people per day globally can be expected to use Point-to-Point Suborbital space transportation over all routes.