Virgin Galactic is now planning two more VSS Unity test flights, which will be attended by company employees and researchers from the Italian Air Force. Only then will the owners of more than 600 purchased flight tickets ($250k each) be able to board the plane and become the first civilians to experience sub-orbital fun.
Speaking of space tourism, Branson’s Virgin Galactic and Musk’s SpaceX are not the only big boys on the block. They actually have a huge competitor in the face of Jeff Bezos and his Blue Origin company, who’s scheduled to launch a bunch of tourists on the New Shepard single-stage return system during its first suborbital flight on July 20. Yes, that’s next week. There’s no ticket price set for New Shepard yet, but someone was so eager to fly to space with Bezos that they paid $28 million to win the auction for that +1 passenger. Let’s hope nothing goes wrong!
So what’s the point of this space race? Just a few billionaires flexing at the poor how rich they are? Nope, there’s one thing these commercial flights can do that only a select few have been able to provide — invaluable research. It may seem like space unimportant, or at least that we should first deal with our problems on Earth before we colonize other planets. Who knows, maybe people are right to think that. But ultimately, this space race will get us a few steps closer to becoming an interplanetary or even intergalactic society. To infinity and beyond!
