resistanceichard Branson currently likes to call himself “Astronaut 001”. The British billionaire signed on LinkedIn a few days ago, and in the article he talked about his upcoming childhood dreams. At seven o’clock in the morning local time this Sunday, he wanted to set off from the desert of New Mexico, USA, to space.
A spacecraft of his Virgin Galactic company is supposed to transport him and five other people into space, where they will experience weightlessness for a few minutes before they return to Earth. “I wanted to go into space since I was a kid,” Branson wrote.At the end of the entry, he quoted the words of a physicist Stephen Hawking: “Look at the stars, not your feet.”
If everything goes according to plan, Branson will be the first person to be sent to space by his own space company. But for a long time, he may not be the only one.Because it’s already July 20, so after 9 days, I want him Jeff Bezos Follow, the founder of online retailer Amazon, who also owns the space expert Blue Origin.
Space tourism is no longer far away
The currently richest man in the world described his upcoming adventure as Branson and said he wanted to do it all his life. It looks like Bezos will have pioneer status because he first announced his flight. But then Branson intervened and arranged his appointment in advance. This looks like a billionaire space race, and conceit may also play a role. “These people are not humble people,” said John Logsdon, the founder and long-term director of the Space Policy Institute at George Washington University, which specializes in space policy.
But these two flights carrying outstanding entrepreneurs may also mark the beginning of a new chapter in space travel. Logsdon said they could be a breakthrough in space tourism and a first step in bringing a wider audience into space. There have been space tourists in the past.For example, between 2001 and 2009, seven wealthy people boarded the Russian Soyuz machine heading to the space station International Space Station The last one is Guy Laliberté, the founder of Cirque du Soleil of the Circus Empire. Even so, so far, space tourism is mainly “hype” in Logson’s words.
He believes that Bezos and Branson can change this. Their stated goal is to sell tickets in space, which is even the core of the business model for Branson and Virgin Galactic.Besides that Elon Musk SpaceX is arguably the most famous private space company. So far, he has gained fame mainly as a partner of NASA, and last year helped it send astronauts back to space for the first time in a long time. But he is also planning to fly with tourists. Unlike Bezos and Branson, he has not announced his space journey. “But it will definitely come,” Logsdon said.
Bezos and Branson went into space far less deeply than the early tourists went to the space station 400 kilometers from the earth. They are planning a suborbital flight to the edge of space.in order to Blue origin It should reach the Carmen Line, which is located 100 kilometers above sea level and is regarded by many as the dividing line between the Earth’s atmosphere and space. Virgin Atlantic will stay below a few kilometers, and at least some US aviation authorities also define this altitude as space. In both cases, passengers should be able to feel weightless.
The journey is very short, Virgin should be around 90 minutes, and Blue Origin is even only 11 minutes. These companies use very different modes of transportation. Virgin Atlantic uses space gliders to transport passengers. Before becoming self-employed, space gliders were carried to a certain height by a two-fuselage aircraft. Passengers of Blue Origins sit in a space capsule that is sent into space by a recoverable rocket.
