In 2001, American businessman Dennis Tito became the world's first official 'space tourist' by flying to the International Space Station in a Russian Soyuz rocket. It may seem unbelievable, especially given the $20 million price tag of the flight, but in launching himself above the earth's atmosphere, Tito effectively launched an entire industry based on the commercialisation of the final frontier.

It's called Space Tourism, but those in the know are calling it the 'it' business of the 21st century. Since Tito blasted off into space, he has been followed by South African Mark Shuttleworth, and then in 2005, by another American, Greg Olsen. Japanese entrepreneur Daisuke Enomoto booked his seat in the shuttle – which is planned for October 2006 - in November this year.

It may seem far removed from South African soil (and particularly from South African budgets!), but local rewards programme, eBucks, and First National Bank (FNB) recently announced the winner of a promotion that will see one ordinary South African – a 27-year-old mother of one from Centurion – blast off into orbit.

Lezanne Human, CEO of eBucks, said: "The Greatest Rewards on Earth competition has been the biggest campaign we have ever run and to actually deliver on such an incredibly innovative idea is something eBucks and FNB can be proud of."

CEO of FNB, Michael Jordaan, added: "This competition has been so magical and we believe it has inspired South Africans to achieve their dreams. This competition created so much excitement – it got the whole country talking!"

Although Julie Krause won't visit the Space Station, she will join a very select group of under 500 people who have left the earth's atmosphere and experienced zero gravity. She will, in all likelihood, also go down in history as the first South African woman to travel to space. As part of her prize, Krause will be one of the first 150 space tourists on the sub-orbital space 'aeroplanes' expected to start service in three to four years time.

Far-fetched as it may sound, this trip isn't pie in the sky. It's been organised by the same company that took Tito, Shuttleworth and Olsen into Space – Space Adventures, a company that has already pre-sold over $100 million worth of space flights, and at least 100 tickets for sub-orbital flights. The promotional programme was conceptualised by promotions company Spin Experience with a view to creating making an ordinary South African into a celebrity astronaut.

Simone Farinha, founding director of Spin Experience, said: "We proposed the world's biggest experience to capture the imagination of all South Africans, as well as to achieve eBucks and FNB's promotional objectives. The association of something as innovative and all encompassing as space travel with the FNB and eBucks brands, has created a sense of wonderment across South Africa."

President and CEO of Space Adventures Eric Anderson is one of the leading entrepreneurs in the commercial human spaceflight and space tourism industry. He believes that the same technological progression seen with the computer age, can be applied to space travel:

"When mainframes were first developed, they were the size of large conference rooms, with the price tag of millions of dollars. Only Governments were able to afford these systems. Over time, manufacturers were able to build smaller and cheaper versions. Today we have laptops the size of coffee table books and computers are used in every facet of our daily lives."

Anderson believes that, like the price of computers, the price of space exploration will decrease over time when reuseable launch vehicles are developed and maintained. As it currently stands, tickets for sub-orbital space flight are selling for $102 000. Space Adventures envisions that this price tag could (and should) settle at around $10 000 in the next few decades.

Speaking on CNN in July this year, Anderson commented that "there are millions and millions of people who would love to go to space … [and] … if we have tens of thousands of people flying in space every year, then the cost of space travel can come down by orders of magnitude which make space exploration much more viable, not only for private companies but for governments. It's all about building economies of scale, and tourism is the only market that can do it."

As far back as 1997, NASA published a report concluding that selling trips to space to private citizens could potentially be worth "billions of dollars". A Japanese report supports these findings, estimating that within the next two decades, the space tourism industry will be worth $10 billion per year.

In yet another international paper titled 'The Space Tourism Industry in 2030' economics professor Dr Patrick Collins notes: "… commercial passenger space travel services could begin in 2010. At a growth rate of some 100 000 passengers year on year, the business could reach 700 000 passengers by year 2017, at a price of $25 000 per passenger."

The paper extrapolates the scenario to the year 2030, based on market research results, and estimates that by that time, space tourism activities could have grown to a scale of $100 billion per year, creating tens of thousands of jobs.

And Space Adventures isn't the only company investing time and money into the future of this industry. Other space mavericks include the likes of Richard Branson under new company banner Virgin Galactic and Jeff Bezos of Amazon.com fame, who are actively involved in developing re-usable, passenger-safe space shuttles.

These so-called astropreneurs know the risks. Anyone who is interested in space can't help but remember the dramatic footage of the Challenger – with the first ordinary citizen aboard – exploding in mid-flight.

But they're also more than aware of the potential rewards – not only those that line personal pockets, but also those that advance the human race's natural need to explore beyond his boundaries, and so re-discover, re-invent and enrich his world.

According to Anderson: "Space exploration in general is actually something that is critically important for humanity. Space harbors our best hope for future energy needs through solar power and other means that are available in space. Space development has helped us in almost every other part of our technology developments, through computers and medical research, et cetera.

"And if private companies can do it and do it inexpensively by bringing the cost down, it's only going to benefit humanity in the long run."

In case you're interested, Space Adventures has just announced the availability of seats for the first private mission to the moon…

About eBucks:

eBucks, the rewards programme offered by First National Bank (FNB) and RMB Private Bank, is acknowledged as one of South Africa's leading rewards programmes with highly active members spending in excess of 80% of the eBucks earned in any given month.