Jeff Bezos standing in front of Blue Origin’s space capsule
Elon Musk, Sir Richard Branson, Jeff Bezos and Sir Richard Branson are all part of the ‘NewSpace” set. They claim that they were inspired to do the first moon landing in 1969 by the US, which beat the Soviet Union in space race.
Amazon founder Bezos seemed set to be the first of three to fly into space. He announced plans to launch aboard Blue Origin Space Company’s New Shepard spacecraft July 20th. But Branson beat him.
The British billionaire became Virgin Galactic Astronaut001 nine days before Bezos when he flew to space in a suborbital plane.
Bezos travelled to space on July 20 with his younger brother Mark, Oliver Daemen, an 18-year-old physics student whose dad purchased his ticket, and pioneering female astronaut Wally Funk, 82.
Musk, the founder of Tesla and SpaceX, has stated that he wants to go into SpaceX. He even said that he would like to ‘die on Mars’. However, he hasn’t said when, but he has purchased a Virgin Galactic ticket for a suborbital flight.
SpaceX was the first operator of’space tourism’ to send a civilian crew into orbit. The Inspiration4 mission was funded by billionaire Jared Isaacman.
Elon Musk, a billionaire who is obsessed with space, created the Dragon capsule as well as the SpaceX rocket. He took off on September 16 for the three-day orbital trip.
SpaceX seems to be leading the space race in the larger billionaire space race. SpaceX has launched numerous missions to transport NASA equipment to the ISS, and has formed partnerships to send tourists into space by 2021.
On February 6 2018, SpaceX sent rocket towards the orbit of Mars, 140 million miles away, with Musk’s own red Tesla roadster attached.
Elon Musk in his Dragon Crew capsule
International Space Station, with crew from NASA, ESA and JAXA, the Japanese space agency.|International Space Station, with crew from NASA, ESA and JAXA, the Japanese space agency.
SpaceX has been sending 60 satellites in batches into space to help build its Starlink network. This network is already in beta and provides fast internet access to rural areas.
Virgin Galactic and Branson are taking a different approach in conquering space. It has repeatedly, and successfully, conducted test flights of the Virgin Galactic’s Unity space plane.
The first took place in December 2018 and the latest on May 22, with the flight accelerating to more than 2,000 miles per hour (Mach 2.7).
More than 600 affluent customers to date, including celebrities Brad Pitt and Katy Perry, have reserved a $250,000 (£200,000) seat on one of Virgin’s space trips. The final tickets will cost $350,000.
Branson previously stated that he expected Elon Musk to win Mars race with his private rocket company SpaceX.
Richard Branson and the Virgin Galactic craft
SpaceShipTwo is capable of carrying six passengers and two crew members. Each passenger has the same seat position with two large windows, one to the side and one to the overhead.
The space ship measures 60 feet long and has a 90 inch cabin. This gives astronauts maximum space to flot in zero gravity.
It climbs to 50,000ft, before the rocket engine ignites. SpaceShipTwo is separated from White Knight II, its carrier craft, once it has reached 50 miles.
Passengers can be called “astronauts” once they reach the Karman boundary, which is the boundary between Earth’s atmosphere and the Earth’s atmosphere.
The spaceship will then travel suborbitally for approximately six minutes, with an average flight time of approximately 1.5 hours.
Bezos revealed in April 2017 that he finances Blue Origin with around $1 billion (£720 million) of Amazon stock each year.
The system includes a crew capsule that is pressurized and mounted on top of a reusable New Shepard booster rocket.
At its peak, the capsule was 65 miles (104 kilometers) long. This was just above the official threshold of space. The capsule landed vertically seven seconds after liftoff.
Blue Origin is currently working on New Glenn which will be the next generation of heavy lift rockets. It will compete with SpaceX Falcon 9.