The idea of flying high above Earth with the love of your life and exchanging vows amongst a constellation of stars is enough to give any romantic heart a moment of awe. That’s why many couples are ditching the traditional wedding route in favor of something much more out-of-this-world: a space wedding.
A Russian cosmonaut was the first to get married in space when he tied the knot with his American wife while on a mission. Yuri Malenchenko and Ekaterina Tikhonovna Gordeeva were used to long distance relationships as they both lived in different countries, but the couple wanted to marry anyway. Officials tried to convince him to postpone the event until he returned to Earth, but he was determined to make it happen. Under Texas law, he was allowed to marry his wife by proxy (a friend stood in for him at NASA’s mission control center in Houston), and they did so to the tune of David Bowie’s “Absolute Beginners.”
Now, it’s possible to have your own space wedding. For the price of about $125,000, a betrothed couple can jet out into space in a carbon-neutral balloon that will give them the chance to look at their home planet from an entirely new angle. This extraterrestrial experience is available through the company Space Perspective, which plans to launch their program in 2024. The company’s Spaceship Neptune will take passengers 100,000 feet above the Earth for a six-hour flight.
The Neptune will be propelled by renewable hydrogen, eliminating the need for rockets and their resulting carbon footprint. Passengers can relax in their comfortable capsules during the flight, and they’ll be able to photograph their amazing journey. The Spaceship Neptune can accommodate eight guests and one pilot in their spacious seats.
There’s also the upcoming Voyager Station, an orbiting starship designed much like a cruise ship. This space hotel is set to open in 2027 and will offer a variety of amenities, including private suites that can be booked for special events like weddings.
As you can imagine, a wedding held in outer space would be a pretty amazing thing to share on social media. But a real-life wedding in space is still a little out of reach for most of us. Fortunately, there are plenty of other ways to get married in space: For instance, you could have an in-orbit elopement on board a private spacecraft. Or, you could join the thousands of people who have already signed up to live in the world’s first space hotel.