Investing in Space: You must be this rich to ride

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For decades, only those selected and trained by the world's superpowers could journey to space.

Then came Dennis Tito, a man who left NASA and built his fortune in finance – a fortune he used to become a space tourist. Tito's no professional, though he did have to train for months with the Russians. A self-funded, recreational astronaut, he paid his own way for a stay on the International Space Station in 2001, and wants to return on a SpaceX Starship flight to the moon.

Two decades after Tito's first mission, the long-promised marketplace for space tourism is finally burgeoning. Companies having flown 46 private passengers in just over a year. There are now a variety of experiences being sold to wealthy individuals, ranging from a couple minutes floating just past the boundary of space to multi-day orbital trips and beyond.

Billionaires Yusaku Maezawa and Jared Isaacman purchased flights and flew to orbit. Richard Branson and Jeff Bezos flew on their respective companies' spacecraft as a show of confidence and, ultimately, proof of concept for their shared goal of flying thousands to and from.

We've heard talk of Tom Cruise filming in orbit, Axiom is booking yearly flights, private space stations like Starlab are signing deals with hotels like Hilton, and Isaacman already bought three more SpaceX flights, including punching his ticket for the first crewed Starship mission.

No, tourism won't move the needle on the global space economy for another decade, even if human spaceflight commands most of the attention (while the boring 'ol satellites make almost all the money). And yes, space tourism is currently only for the wealthy, and those lucky enough to ride along with them.

But that's still good news. Before, it was out of reach for even the billionaires. In her pitch yesterday for why Tito's return to space matters, SpaceX director Aarti Matthews declared "that it puts us on a very firm step towards airline-like operations, where now, for the first time, you can buy an individual seat to the moon."

Buying such a seat for less than a small fortune is unlikely before 2030. But the key difference this decade, as opposed to the previous one, is that there are now options – with more on the way.

• NASA aims to make its next Artemis I launch attempt on Nov. 14. The space agency's delayed mission is preparing to roll back out to the launchpad following a period of inspections, with a middle-of-the-night attempt now on deck. – CNBC
• Japan's ispace aims to launch its first lunar lander mission next month. The moon exploration company announced a target window between Nov. 9 and Nov. 15 for the launch of "Mission 1," riding on SpaceX's Falcon 9 rocket. – CNBC
• Astra gets a delisting warning from the Nasdaq, with its stock under $1 a share. The small rocket-builder disclosed the notice in a securities filing, which gives the company 180 days to lift its stock price. Astra is currently trading near 50 cents per share. – CNBC
• Camping season boosts SpaceX: The company announced its "Starlink for RVs" service has over 100,000 customers, as it continues to broaden the network's business lines. – SpaceX
• Rocket Lab reaches record eighth launch in a calendar year, with an Electron rocket carrying General Atomics' GAzelle satellite to orbit. – Read more
• NASA's DART mission smashed the targeted asteroid better than expected. The agency announced the small spacecraft's high-speed impact altered the asteroid's orbit 25 times more than estimated. – NASA
• Japanese Epsilon-6 rocket fails shortly after liftoff in the nation's first launch failure in almost 20 years. JAXA officials are investigating the cause of the failure, which destroyed eight satellites. – AP
• NASA's planet-hunting spacecraft suffers unexpected computer reset, with TESS (Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite) now in a "safe mode" in orbit around the Earth while an agency team investigates how to resume normal operations. – NASA
• Mars lander InSight riding out massive dust storm, with NASA's JPL team worried it may lose power and cause the mission's end. Notably, the mission is already years beyond its intended lifetime. – NASA
• Virgin Orbit's jet arrives for first U.K. launch, with the company aiming to conduct the first orbital launch from the country next month. – Virgin Orbit / @SpaceCornwall 
• SpaceX launches pair of communications satellites for Intelsat, with its Falcon 9 rocket carrying Northrop Grumman-built satellites Galaxy 33 and Galaxy 34 into orbit. – Intelsat

• Amazon swapped rockets to launch Kuiper prototypes, moving off of ABL Space's RS1 rocket over to ULA's Vulcan rocket. Both launch vehicles are still in development, but the tech giant needs to test its internet satellites in orbit as soon as possible. Amazon didn't think the yet-to-reach-orbit ABL would hit even the delayed timelines of ULA's Vulcan. – CNBC
• Pentagon awards York Space with $200 million experimental satellite contract. Known as the T1DES constellation, York came out as the winner against five other bidders at less than $17 million per satellite. – CNBC
• Navy awards nearly $1 billion contract to Inmarsat to create a global military communications network, including coverage in the Arctic. – SpaceNews
• Sierra Space creates venture capital arm, and named Matthew Mejía as chief strategy and development officer, as well as lead of the new group. Mejía was previously CFO at Aerion Supersonic. – Sierra Space
• Spire Global signed an agreement for multiple launches with Virgin Orbit, with the first expected next year. The total number of launches and contract value were not disclosed. – Virgin Orbit
• Astra to supply Maxar and Astroscale with electric propulsion engines, although the contract values were undisclosed. – Reuters / Astra
• SpaceX signs agreement with Japanese telecom for Starlink sales: The company's deal with KDDI makes the latter an "authorized Starlink integrator," to sell to the telecom's business and government customers. SpaceX now offers Starlink service in more than 40 countries. – KDDI
• Middle Eastern satellite operator Yahsat invests in California-based satellite-to-smartphone startup eSAT Global, but did not disclose financial details beyond saying it was a minority stake. – SpaceNews

• Oct. 7: SpaceX returns Crew-4 for NASA from the ISS. After calling off plans to return on Wednesday and Thursday, officials are looking at splashing down the astronauts on Friday.
• Oct. 12: SpaceX launching Eutelsat's Hotbird 13F satellite with a Falcon 9 rocket from Florida.