Jeff Bezos’ rocket is going to need a bigger glans.
This first private customer flight had been delayed for years; its success means Richard Branson’s Virgin Galactic can now start offering monthly rides, joining Jeff Bezos’ Blue Origin and Elon Musk’s SpaceX in the space tourism business.
Virgin Galactic will be taking passengers and crew on a 90-minute suborbital ride this afternoon as the ‘spaceplane’ blasts them up to about 80km above the New Mexico desert.
The International Space Station was designed to support a crew of six, according to NASA, but is now home to 11 astronauts.
The trip will take six people into space for approximately 10 minutes, where they will experience weightlessness.
Jeff Bezos’ Blue Origin just announced plans to put the first commercial space station into orbit, which will be like a “mixed-use business park” for film crews and tourists to enjoy Earth from a distance.
Along with the novelty of space tourism, SpaceX and its Netflix streaming special will mark a new era of live broadcasting.
Billionaire Yusaku Maezawa is offering eight people the chance to join him on his mission to the moon on SpaceX’s Starship in 2023.