Insuring the Uninsurable

One of the biggest issues facing all private space companies interested in pioneering commercial spaceflight and space tourism is liability and insurance. Although the likelihood is low that space tourism will become widely available in the next 10 or 20 years, the hurdle still exists.

According to an article in Business Insurance, the fact that space tourism is not yet common has led to a lot of speculation on whether or not private spaceflight companies would even be able to afford the insurance necessary to cover their clientele. This is especially true when one considers that during the early years of space tourism, most of, if not all, the passengers are likely to be extremely wealthy.

The high cost of insurance is likely to keep ticket prices extremely high during the first few years of space tourism, an unfortunate reality that Jeffrey Poliseno, CEO of International Space Brokers Inc., claims will not last forever: “Ultimately, when space tourism becomes routine, (insurers) are going to be very large supporters of it.”

Those waiting patiently on the sidelines for the inevitable historic leap that will be undertaken with space tourism can only keep their fingers crossed… and save their pennies.