How Lucky Contestants Win Their Way to Space
Random draws and sweepstakes award space travel seats worth millions
Contest winners are the most charmed group of space travelers, representing a fraction of the small number of humans who have reached space. They entered fundraising sweepstakes, crypto contests, and promotional campaigns that offered space travel as the hook. None had credentials that would qualify them for agency missions, and none needed them. Most space travel contest prizes are for 10-30 minute suborbital excursions that require no specialized training.
Commercial spaceflight has shifted from the rare civilian paying for a seat on Roscosmos missions in the early 2000s to today’s near-monthly flights operated by commercial spacelines. There have been 213 commercial passengers who reached space either paying Roscosmos or, more commonly, buying a seat on the commercial flights operated by Virgin Galactic, Blue Origin, and SpaceX.
Contest winners have flown on all three spacelines. Current prices illustrate the value of these flights. Today, Virgin Galactic suborbital seats just below the Kármán line cost $600K, Blue Origin suborbital seats just beyond the Kármán line cost about $1.9M, and SpaceX multi-day, orbital mission seats are priced at $55M.
These luck-driven selections stand apart from the merit-based competitions covered in our previous article, which awarded seats for leadership, outreach, or scientific contribution. According to Spaceport Lounge data, five commercial passengers have flown on fully paid seats won through random draw or lottery-style selection.
St. Jude’s Digital Raffle
Christopher Sembroski became the luckiest space travel winner when he joined SpaceX’s Inspiration4 multi-day mission in 2021, on a seat valued at $50M. St. Jude’s fundraising campaign entered donors into a drawing. A friend of Sembroski originally won but could not go, so he offered his place to Sembroski. It is the only orbital travel seat ever won in a mass-entry donation raffle.
The St. Jude sweepstakes drew about 72,000 entries and raised roughly $13 million, contributing to a total of more than $240 million generated for the hospital. This figure included a $100 million donation from mission commander Jared Isaacman, who was subsequently nominated to lead NASA as the next administrator.
Brazilian Crypto Draw
In 2022, the Brazilian crypto community Crypto Space Agency offered a Blue Origin New Shepard seat opportunity to holders of its NFT (non-fungible token) collection. Civil engineer Victor Correa Hespanha won the draw and became only the second Brazilian to reach space. The contest occurred during the peak of crypto’s consumer push.
Roughly five thousand NFT holders were eligible to participate. The promotion produced a rise in NFT sales and social engagement, giving the project attention setting it apart from other crypto initiatives.
The Virgin Galactic Sweepstakes
Virgin Galactic’s sweepstakes awarded mother and daughter Keisha Schahaff and Anastatia Mayers of Antigua and Barbuda two seats. Schahaff entered the 2021 sweepstakes and chose her daughter, a physics student, to join her. They flew on Galactic 02 in 2023, becoming the first mother and daughter in space and the first astronauts from their home country.
The sweepstakes attracted over 160,000 entrants and provided broad visibility for both the nonprofit and Virgin Galactic. It raised $1.7M to support Space for Humanity’s citizen astronaut program, in which several of the merit-based winners have been selected.
Austin Litteral: The Whatnot Livestream Giveaway
Live-commerce platform Whatnot ran a 2024 promotional giveaway of a Blue Origin New Shepard seat for its community of buyers and sellers. Users earned entries by watching streams and following creators. The winner was Kentucky resident and former Army reservist Austin Litteral. His New Shepard mission became the most retail-focused contest to date, created to increase participation on a growing commerce platform.
The giveaway generated millions of engagement-based entries and delivered strong visibility for Whatnot across social channels and tech news.
Current and Future Space Travel Contests
Companies are likely to continue using space travel as a promotional and fundraising tool when the exposure return justifies the investment. This mirrors long-standing use of travel sweepstakes, where exotic prizes draw attention and participation. Spaceflight offers a stronger version of that.
At the moment no open contests can be found that offer a seat to space. We will update this section as new opportunities appear, so be sure to check back.
One related contest, Spark into Space, is currently open through December 11, 2025. It does not include a spaceflight prize but offers a package built around the Space Coast that includes a hotel stay, visits to the Kennedy Space Center, an Astronaut Training Experience session, a meeting with a NASA astronaut, and several themed activities in the Orlando area.
