PayPal looks to explore how payments will work in space

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FILE - This Jan. 19, 2011 file photo shows the eBay/PayPal offices in San Jose, Calif. PayPal, which is eBay Inc.’s payments business, says it is launching an initiative called PayPal Galactic with the help of the nonprofit SETI Institute in Mountain View, Calif., and the Space Tourism Society, an industry group focused on space travel. Its goal, PayPal says, is to work out how commerce will work in space. (AP Photo/Paul Sakuma, File)

NEW YORK, N.Y. – PayPal wants to explore space — or at least begin to figure out how payments and commerce will work beyond Earth’s realm once space travel and tourism take off.

PayPal, which is eBay Inc.’s payments business, says it is launching an initiative called PayPal Galactic with the help of the non-profit SETI Institute in Mountain View, Calif., and the Space Tourism Society, an industry group focused on space travel.

Its goal, PayPal says, is to work out how commerce will work in space.

Questions to be answered include how commerce will be regulated and what currency will be used.

PayPal’s president, David Marcus, says the company is “very serious” about the idea.

He says that while space tourism was once the stuff of science fiction, it’s now becoming a reality.

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