The article establishes that the concept of space tourism has undergone a long evolution and is connected with mankind's perception of space aircraft as a literary category of fantastic works, the result of scientific developments with their own names, a comprehensive service of passenger space transport and a hotel and restaurant industry located on near-Earth space orbits. It has been proven that the main features of the space tourism market at the present time are: commercial nature, package offer of tourist services, their high cost, high requirements for space tourists as participants in space flight from the point of view of their health, physical training, life safety instruction ; segmentation according to the level of solvency of consumers (premium class, wealthy clients), according to motivating motives (extreme, entertainment, implementation of business ideas, conducting scientific research, etc.). Factors that will stimulate the development of space tourism are highlighted: provision of mass passenger space transport projects, development of ground infrastructure in the form of spaceports and space infrastructure in the form of hotels and restaurants; creation and distribution of space tourism agencies, regulatory and legal regulation. It is shown that space tourism is an international legal category. In order to bring national legislation into line with world practice, space tourism should be included in the main concepts of the Law of Ukraine "On Space Activities". It is also appropriate to determine the requirements and rules for the participation of citizens of Ukraine and other states in this type of tourism, to regulate the issue of issuing permits for this type of tourism in Ukraine. It has been proven that the development of space tourism will be stimulated by insurance protection mechanisms for space tourists, similar to those received by airline passengers. Space flights and space tourism are a promising segment of the insurance protection market, the development of which is restrained by high technical-technological, commercial, financial risks and the complexity of their distribution among interested parties.