The bottom line is 2018 should finally be the year where we see the early stages of broad-based commercial space tourism appear. Demand will certainly be driven by the early successes or failures of those missions, the marketing of those missions, as well as the propensity for tourists to become repeat flyers.

There are items that have far superior quality when manufactured in space, but need to be returned to Earth to be purchased and used by customers.

One example of an upcoming need for downmass - the ability to transport material from space to the Earth - is space manufacturing.

Dylan Taylor Quotes