In April 2001, the company sent American businessman Dennis Tito for a reported US$20 million payment, making him the first space tourist.

Gregory Olsen became the third private citizen to travel to the ISS in October 2005, followed by the first female space tourist, Anousheh Ansari, who completed her 10-day orbital mission in September 2006.

[citation needed] As of 2007[update], the company's advisory board included Apollo 11 moonwalker Buzz Aldrin, Space Shuttle astronauts Sam Durrance, Tom Jones, Byron Lichtenberg, Norm Thagard, Kathy Thornton, Pierre Thuot, and Charles Walker, Skylab/Shuttle astronaut Owen Garriott, and Russian cosmonaut Yuri Usachev.

[2] In January 2008, Space Adventures acquired Zero Gravity Corporation, which is the first and only FAA-approved provider of weightless flights to the general public.

Brightman was initially expected to be replaced by another Space Adventures client, Japanese advertisement entrepreneur Satoshi Takamatsu; however, in June 2015, the company announced that Takamatsu had elected to postpone his flight to prepare for "art projects that [he] would like to perform in space [that] require cutting-edge technology both in hardware and software".

While aboard the ISS, he participated in a research program prepared by the European Space Agency (ESA) that studied the human body's response to the microgravity environment.

He also conducted the first-ever artistic and social event, "Moving Stars and Earth for Water", to originate from space that took place on 9 October 2009.

[11] It was a two-hour event that was hosted by Laliberté and many celebrities such as Salma Hayek, Shakira, and Bono, who participated from Earth.

[12] The mission was unusual for a Soyuz flight in that it did not deliver any ISS Expedition crew members or serve as a lifeboat, and was entirely devoted to space tourism.

[13] Maezawa, who paid for both his and Hirano's seats, also financed the DearMoon project, in which he and several other people will fly on a circumlunar trajectory onboard SpaceX's Starship later in the decade, though it was later cancelled.

[citation needed] In 2006, the company announced that it would begin offering a spacewalk option to its clients traveling to the ISS.

Space Adventures is offering advance booking for a future lunar mission involving travel to circumnavigate the Moon, on a circumlunar trajectory.

[27] Space Adventures have subsequently amended their website to say they expect the first circumlunar voyage will occur before the end of the decade.

[28] The SpaceX Crew Dragon vehicle would launch from LC-39A with up to four tourists on board, and spend up to five days in a low Earth orbit with an apogee of over 1,000 kilometres (620 mi).

[29] In October 2021, Space Adventures stated that the mission contract had expired, but left open the possibility of a partnership with SpaceX in the future.

[citation needed] By 2006, the Explorer aerospace system would consist of a flight-operational carrier aircraft, the M-55X, and a rocket spacecraft, having the capability to transport up to five people to space.

The per-passenger price point was announced in April 2010 to be US$102,000 for a flight to 100 km (62 mi) altitude, above the Karman line.

[34] Japanese businessman Daisuke Enomoto sued Space Adventures in 2008 as his trip was canceled by the company for medical reasons after he paid US$21 million and no refund was given.