Editing Human spaceflight (section)

== Passenger travel via spacecraft ==
Over the decades, a number of spacecraft have been proposed for spaceliner passenger travel. Somewhat analogous to travel by [[airliner]] after the middle of the 20th century, these vehicles are proposed to [[space transport|transport]] large numbers of passengers to destinations in space, or on Earth via [[suborbital spaceflight]]s. To date, none of these concepts have been built, although a few vehicles that carry fewer than 10 persons are currently in the [[test flight]] phase of their development process.{{citation needed|date=May 2024}}

One large spaceliner concept currently in early development is the [[SpaceX Starship]], which, in addition to replacing the [[Falcon 9]] and [[Falcon Heavy]] [[launch vehicle]]s in the legacy Earth-orbit [[Space launch market competition|market]] after 2020, has been proposed by SpaceX for long-distance commercial travel on Earth, flying 100+ people suborbitally between two points in under one hour, also known as "Earth-to-Earth".<ref name=rollingstone20171115>{{cite magazine|last1=Strauss|first1=Neil|title=Elon Musk: The Architect of Tomorrow|url=https://www.rollingstone.com/culture/features/elon-musk-inventors-plans-for-outer-space-cars-finding-love-w511747|access-date=15 November 2017|magazine=Rolling Stone|date=15 November 2017}}</ref><ref name=sxEarthToEarth201709>[https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=40&v=zqE-ultsWt0 Starship Earth to Earth], SpaceX, 28 September 2017, accessed 23 December 2017.</ref><ref name=sn20171015c>{{cite news |last=Foust|first=Jeff |url=http://spacenews.com/musk-offers-more-technical-details-on-bfr-system/ |title=Musk offers more technical details on BFR system |work=[[SpaceNews]] |date=15 October 2017 |access-date=15 October 2017 |quote=[the] spaceship portion of the BFR, which would transport people on point-to-point suborbital flights or on missions to the moon or Mars, will be tested on Earth first in a series of short hops. ... a full-scale Ship doing short hops of a few hundred kilometers altitude and lateral distance ... fairly easy on the vehicle, as no heat shield is needed, we can have a large amount of reserve propellant and don't need the high area ratio, deep space Raptor engines.}}</ref>

Small [[spaceplane]] or small [[space capsule|capsule]] suborbital spacecraft have been under development for the past decade or so; {{as of|2017|lc=y}}, at least one of each type is under development. Both [[Virgin Galactic]] and [[Blue Origin]] have craft in active [[new product development|development]]: the [[SpaceShipTwo]] spaceplane and the [[New Shepard]] capsule, respectively. Both would carry approximately a half-dozen passengers up to space for a brief time of zero gravity before returning to the launch location. [[XCOR Aerospace]] had been developing the [[Lynx (spacecraft)|Lynx single-passenger spaceplane]] since the 2000s,<ref>(2012) [http://www.spacexc.com/en/bookings/ SXC - Buying your tickets into space!] {{webarchive |url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130306043002/http://www.spacexc.com/en/bookings/ |date=6 March 2013 }} SXC web page, Retrieved 5 April 2013</ref><ref>{{cite web | last = Staff writers | title = Space Expedition Corporation Announces Wet Lease of XCOR Lynx Suborbital | work = Space Media Network Promotions | publisher = Space-Travel.com  | date = 6 October 2010 | url = http://www.space-travel.com/reports/Space_Experience_Curacao_Announces_Wet_Lease_of_XCOR_Lynx_Suborbital_999.html | access-date = 6 October 2010 }}</ref> but development was halted in 2017.<ref name=sn20171109>{{cite news |last=Foust |first=Jeff |title=XCOR Aerospace Files for Bankruptcy |url=http://spacenews.com/xcor-aerospace-files-for-bankruptcy/ |date=9 November 2017 |work=[[SpaceNews]] |access-date=13 May 2021}}</ref>