News was made in July when two billionaires raced to the edge of space and returned home safely in two different types of aircraft. Billionaires and CEOs Richard Branson (Virgin Galactic) and Jeff Bezos (Blue Origin) took a short flight to the edge of space with their passengers and returned home safely! Blue Origin reached an altitude of about 66 miles (106 kilometers), more than 10 miles (16 kilometers) higher than Branson’s space flight.
Bob Larson
Incidentally, Elon Musk, owner of Tesla and founder of SpaceX, is also among the participants in the space race for tourism outside Earth and beyond. SpaceX currently ferries astronauts and products to the International Space Station.
CEO Branson with his passengers took a flight in his piloted rocket propelled aircraft and achieved weightlessness for several minutes before landing in New Mexico. 600 tickets have already been sold to people in 60 countries for a price between $ 200,000 and $ 250,000 for future flights.
CEO Bezos took his three passengers into space on his automated Blue Origin rocket ship and experienced weightlessness for several minutes before his capsule parachuted back to West Texas. Bezos goal is transport human beings to live and reproduce in space colonies, extending our species in other worlds.
Naysayers felt this was a waste with all the worldwide problems, but in reality, Bezos, Branson, and Musk have donated millions to different environmental groups. These events made history in technological terms that three different private companies achieved space flight and returned home safely.
I suspect the next step for either CEO is to send future planned flights to circle Earth and return home safely, then eventually land on the Moon or Mars with NASA’s help, and eventually travel outside our solar system. Who knows when, but it’s going to happen! Thanks to these daring entrepreneurs! Bob Larson is a technologist and Marketing Director for 50 Plus.