The Race To Outer Space Is Heating Up With A Launch Scheduled For Sunday
The race is on between the billionaires.
For decades now we, along with other nations, have been sending astronauts into outer space. We send them for up for a couple of quick trips around the globe while others head to the International Space Station for an extended stay where they conduct all kinds of scientific experiments and study all kinds of things. Just going up into outer space and to the ISS isn't satisfying our curiosity, we want to go farther and see what else is out there. We've sent all kinds of craft into deep space for exploration and even made a successful landing on Mars recently.
Our interest and desire is only growing as we want to know and discover more about our galaxy and universe.
The race to be the first private citizen aboard a commercial flight to outer space is reaching an apex with a scheduled launch set for Sunday. For years now Elon Musk and his SpaceX rocket company has been testing rockets to get us to space. At the same time Richard Branson's Virgin Galactic and Jeff Bezos' Blue Origin have been leading the way creating space craft to carry passengers into outer space.
Barring any complications, technical issues or weather delays, it appears as if Richard Branson will be among the first private citizens to head into outer space on a commercial flight aboard a Virgin Galactic flight. If everything goes off as planned he'll complete this mission a full nine days before the scheduled launch by Jeff Bezos' Blue Origin company.
Branson isn't going at it alone, he'll be accompanied by a crew of five others and when Jeff Bezos lifts off nine days later, he'll be accompanied by his brother and a woman who has been trying to get to outer space for the past six decades!
Let's just hope these flights go off without any major catastrophes and are successful on their maiden voyages so that they really do pave the way for us regular folk who want to go to outer space can one day do it. Although it'll take our life savings to buy that ticket.