Status: 07/20/2021 8:24 a.m.
After Richard Branson’s successful rocket launch, competitor Jeff Bezos now wants to venture into space. Both billionaires are planning a space tourism business.
By Ute Spangenberger,
SWR
For Jeff Bezos, Amazon founder and head of the US space company Blue Origin, it must be an unbearable situation: In the battle of the billionaires’ strengths over the space tourism business, he suffered a defeat. He had long ago announced that his “New Shepard” rocket would bring people towards space for the first time.
Competition for space tourists
At very short notice and surprisingly, competitor Richard Branson, British billionaire and head of the space company Virgin Galactic, brought his flight forward and took off nine days ago. With that, he was sure of the headlines. The no less ambitious and self-centered Bezos now has to follow suit. He made a good face for the bad game via social media and congratulated his competitor: “Richard Branson and crew, congratulations on the flight. I can’t wait to join the club”.
So now Bezos is starting, and it’s in his DNA, so to speak, that he too wants to break records. He himself will be on board the “New Shepard” capsule, alongside his brother and – according to Blue Origin – the oldest and the youngest person to have ever been in space. These are the 18-year-old son of an investment banker from the Netherlands and the 82-year-old former US pilot Wally Funk, who is a legend in the USA.
similarities and differences
Branson and Bezos flights have some similarities, but also some differences. Uwe Gradwohl, space expert at Südwestrundfunk, explains: “Branson used a space plane that can return to the launch site like a glider pilot in the final phase of its return to the surface. Bezos flies into space in a space capsule at the tip of a reusable rocket. This capsule detaches from the rocket and lands Parachutes. ” According to Gradwohl, both flights are suborbital flights.
The two spacecraft will be far from being fast enough to enter Earth orbit permanently. Gradwohl explains: “Branson flew at an altitude of over 80 kilometers and thus above the altitude mark that defines the limit to space for the US military. Bezos wants to cross the 100-kilometer limit, which is defined for physical reasons as the boundary between aerospace This is also the altitude, which is regarded internationally as a limit mark. ”
Since Bezos developed an expandable rocket and not, like Branson, an aircraft with a comparatively modest rocket propulsion system, he could go a little further into space in the future. In the next step, he wants to fly into orbit with a further developed type of rocket and enter the satellite business.
The role of Elon Musk and Space X
The name Elon Musk is often mentioned in connection with the competition of billionaires in space. The Tesla founder owns the space company SpaceX. He too is planning tourist space flights; however, his space activities are not comparable to those of Branson and Bezos. German Hans Königsmann, who until recently was Vice President of SpaceX, explains:
The three companies – Virgin Galactic, Blue Origin and SpaceX – have completely different orientations. We, Space X, are the largest launcher in the world after China. Only China has more rocket launches. We supply the International Space Station ISS with astronauts, food, technology and everything that goes with it. The other two companies are currently busy getting to about 100 km altitude and doing great parabolic flights, so to speak. This is for people who want to spend a lot of money on it.
SpaceX has announced that it will launch with a Falcon 9 rocket and a Crew Dragon space capsule later this year and that it will orbit the earth with four people. Further plans are flights with tourists to the ISS, who will then spend several days there.
Visionaries in space
Despite all the differences in the billionaires’ ambitions and missions, Königsmann sees one thing in common: “Neither Elon Musk, Richard Branson, or Jeff Bezos do it just to make money. At least that’s never been what drives them. They each have a vision and try to implement this. ”