Forget the Bezos and Branson Spaceflights. The Real Deal Happens This Fall

This has been a big month for billionaires in space. On July 11, Richard Branson flew aboard his Virgin Galactic VSS Unity spacecraft 80 km (50 mi) up to suborbital altitude, returned safely to Earth, and earned his astronaut wings in the process. Tuesday morning, Jeff Bezos followed, flying his Blue Origin New Shepard ship even higher—100 km (62 mi) up—and similarly joined the astronaut club. The media did what the media will always do in situations like this—present company included—which was to find a catchy hook (Billionaire Space Race!) and devote no end of coverage to the Branson-Bezos doings. And with good reason: the technology is nifty, the achievements are real, and both Blue Origin and Virgin Galactic aim to open the flights to the public too—or at least the vanishingly small portion of the public that can afford a six-figure fare for little more than a 10-minute flight to and from space. [time-brightcove not-tgx=”true”] But the storm of press has thus far largely overlooked a much bigger space deal coming in September, when yet another billionaire—Jared Isaacman, the CEO of Shift4 Payments, an online payments company—goes aloft with three other civilian astronauts aboard a SpaceX Crew Dragon spacecraft in a mission dubbed Inspiration4. Never mind 10 suborbital minutes, this will be a three-day trip to orbital space at an altitude higher than that of the International Space Station (ISS). And never mind the idea...
Source: TIME: Science - Category: Science Authors: Tags: Uncategorized Source Type: news