A Three-Way Race for Space Tourism

Aug 16, 2021 By Jerrick, 11
B0pper's picture

Daredevils have been waiting and waiting to travel into space just as easily as they go on vacations to foreign countries.

Imagine saying, “For summer break, I’m going to Mars for two weeks,” and not be considered weird. SpaceX, Virgin Galactic, and Blue Origin are three major companies led by billionaire business geniuses around the world working to make personal space travel possible. 

Richard Branson’s Virgin Galactic

Virgin Galactic’s famous British CEO Richard Branson decided he wanted to change the world and bring space travel to the market.

Branson founded a new company called Virgin Galactic in 2004. After years of building, testing, and unfortunate accidents including a test flight crash in 2014, the first successful flight took place on December 13, 2018. Named the “VSS Unity,” the vehicle reached just beyond the Earth's atmosphere to the beginning of space, which the U.S Air Force considers as 50 miles above the Earth.

In July of this year, Branson along with five of his employees flew 50 miles above the Earth and back, 9 days before fellow competitor Jeff Bezos's planned trip. The first commercial flight with two pilots and six passengers is planned for early 2022. Six hundred anxious passengers are eagerly waiting for their turn to take a wondrous space journey.

Elon Musk’s SpaceX 

America’s SpaceX is operated by South African-born Elon Musk who founded the all-time famous car company, Tesla, after moving to the US for college.

Since the creation of Tesla, Musk has been looking forward to traveling to space. He invested more than $100M to create SpaceX in 2002. Musk knew there were competitors, so he made his spaceship a sleek, grey rocket that would be propelled by three hyperjet engines that give enough thrust to make it one of the fastest spaceships in the world. The company was the first to design reusable rockets. 

Musk has had early successes. Despite initial experiments, SpaceX was the first to dock an unmanned spaceship with the International Space Station (in 2012) and in 2020, send two astronauts to and back from the ISS. 

Musk named his latest creation “Starship” to ferry people and supplies to the moon and Mars. Starship’s first test launch turned out to be a failure, and the Starship blew up. The company is planning its first commercial flight carrying passengers for an orbit around the moon in 2023!   

Jeff Bezos’s Blue Origin

American Jeff Bezos, typically the richest person on Earth and Amazon’s CEO/founder, suddenly had a wild thought to create Blue Origin, a space company in 2000. He initially wanted to build better launch rockets, but over the last few years, grew his mission to include space flight and moon missions.

On July 20, Bezos flew 62 miles above the Earth for the first time with a crew of three that included his brother, an 82-year-old aviator, and an 18-year-old from the Netherlands. 

Which of these three will successfully send commercial passengers into space for a few days or even to the moon? What do you think?

 

Comments

Chamiya12's picture
Chamiya12 December 5, 2022 - 7:37pm
Elon musk for sure gurl you did a good job.
lunagirl2011's picture
lunagirl2011 November 21, 2022 - 11:12am
I loved it so cool 🫠🫠🫠
Kingston's picture
Kingston March 28, 2022 - 6:48am
cool
♛♢ⓟ𝔞ᑌㄥ в𝓡𝓸ώ𝓃🍟👽's picture
♛♢ⓟ𝔞ᑌㄥ в𝓡𝓸ώ𝓃🍟👽 March 8, 2022 - 11:54am
I would love to go to space but I'm too scared of getting stuck up there
Mahn's picture
Mahn January 22, 2022 - 9:09am
Elon
Adam Salme's picture
Adam Salme January 21, 2022 - 9:18am
Great article, I can’t believe and 11 year old wrote this
gage.wright's picture
gage.wright January 20, 2022 - 11:32am
THIS IS SO COOL I LIKE Rocket ships
Bay Thoroughbred mare's picture
Bay Thoroughbre... January 10, 2022 - 11:58am
so cool
EllieJelly's picture
EllieJelly January 10, 2022 - 9:46am
I think that Elon Musk is in the lead and Richard Branson is behind him.
ellipink4's picture
ellipink4 January 6, 2022 - 11:16am
i do not get this i am just a kid
pokemon_creeper's picture
pokemon_creeper October 20, 2021 - 1:09pm
elon is better
Demonwolf141's picture
Demonwolf141 October 6, 2021 - 12:12pm
I think that Elon Musk is definitely leading the way, but that Richard Branson is definitely behind him. Jeff Bezos has a lot of money, but I think he'll find he should go back to Amazon.
meganh1's picture
meganh1 August 27, 2021 - 11:50am
cool
Cebes_17's picture
Cebes_17 August 27, 2021 - 9:25am
I want Elon musks to win
kilian.thomson's picture
kilian.thomson January 20, 2022 - 7:11am
elon musks for the win
Dragon Master's picture
Dragon Master September 27, 2021 - 7:57am
me too