![]() ![]() He believes the future of humanity lies in its ability to colonise other planets. While anyone else with that kind of money may well have retired, Musk works 100 hours a week at his Los Angeles rocket factory, intent on realising his dream.įor Musk, space travel is not just about ticking things off in a Lonely Planet guidebook. Musk made his fortune creating PayPal, which eBay bought from him for $1.5bn. This was set up by Elon Musk, an internet entrepreneur born in South Africa. Starchaser, a company headed by Briton, Steve Bennet, hopes its rockets will offer a more enduring experience – a 20-minute flight, several minutes of which will be spent in zero gravity.īut probably the most impressive private space company is SpaceX. The whole journey will last just a few minutes. Once thrust upwards, the craft will head for the edge of the atmosphere. These will carry six passengers, paying up to $200,000 for their space thrill. ![]() Richard Branson, a British entrepreneur, is planning to start space-tourist flights on his Virgin Galactic craft. It may be able to make four daily suborbital flights but will carry only one passenger each time. Its new tourist spacecraft can take off and land on a runway at a civilian airport. This company subcontracts for NASA and is well known for producing reliable craft. This is the brainchild of Jeff Greason, of XCOR Aerospace. Although the spacecraft is still in the testing stage, a travel agency, Space Adventures, has signed a deal with Armadillo to sell seats.Ī cheaper alternative to Armadillo’s trip may be a ride on a Lynx spacecraft. Fares for suborbital trips will start at around $100,000. Armadillo is developing a similar spacecraft to that of Blue Origin. He gave the world the video games Doom and Quake. The main project of Blue Origin is a vertical take-off and landing rocket, designed exclusively for tourism.Īrmadillo Aerospace was also set up by a well-known American: John Carmack. The billionaire Bezos was the man behind Amazon, America’s largest online retailer. One such company, Blue Origin, was founded by Jeff Bezos. There they can experience the thrills of weightlessness and the marvellous sight of our planet so far away. The question is: are these companies merely chasing tourist dollars, or will their space exploration benefit humanity?Ĭurrently, there are at least four big American and two British companies involved in the new space race – the mission to send tourists to the edge of Earth’s atmosphere. We’ve all heard of NASA, ESA, and the ISS (International Space Station), but now some private firms are challenging those institutions. Until recently, only nation-states and their agencies were capable of sending satellites and astronauts into space. ![]()
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