Buckle up for the ride of your lifetime: space tourism is set to leap out of the pages of science fiction and take off in the coming years if a clutch of Japanese companies have their way.

\"Space flight, which had just been an idle dream for mankind, became a routine job for astronauts in the 20th century,\" says Kohki Isozaki, head of space tourism promotion at the Japanese Rocket Society.

\"And this will become your reality in the 21st century,\" he predicted.