Liftoff of Inspiration4 on September 15, 2021.
Credit: John Kraus, Inspiration4

On Wednesday evening, four people blasted off from Cape Canaveral, Florida, for a multi-day orbital flight. But none of them were trained astronauts. Nor were they members of any branch of the armed services. They were part of the first all-civilian orbital spaceflight in history.

American entrepreneur Jared Isaacman financed the mission. Determined to prevent the flight from being viewed as a billionaire’s thrill-seeking jaunt into space, Isaacman turned the event into a fundraiser for St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital, with the goal of raising $200 million. He solicited donations and held contests to determine who would join him on the flight. The three winners were physician’s assistant and former St. Jude’s patient Hayley Arceneaux, data engineer Chris Sembroski, and geoscientist Sian Proctor. Now, the quartet is orbiting Earth, performing experiments and conducting outreach activities. Their capsule will likely splash down in the Atlantic Ocean over the weekend.

The crew of Inspiration4 participate in a launch day rehearsal on September 13, 2021 : (L-R) Sembroski, Proctor, Isaacman and Arceneaux.
Credit: SpaceX

After two decades of mishaps and false starts, the space tourism industry finally appears poised to take off. Isaacman’s flight is the third major space tourism milestone to occur this year. In July, entrepreneurs Jeff Bezos and Richard Branson competed to reach space first aboard rockets from their respective space companies, with Branson edging out Bezos by less than 10 days.

But Isaacman purchased his flight neither from Bezos’s company, Blue Origin, nor Branson’s company, Virgin Galactic. The Crew Dragon and Falcon 9 rocket that took Inspiration 4 to orbit were manufactured by the American aerospace company SpaceX. Neither Bezos’s nor Branson’s craft were designed to fly as high or as long as SpaceX’s capsule. Isaacman and his fellow travelers will reach an altitude of 357 miles (575 kilometers) above Earth, higher than the orbits of both the International Space Station and the Hubble Space Telescope.

The founder of SpaceX, South African-born entrepreneur Elon Musk, declined to directly participate in the billionaire’s space race. Instead, his company has focused on flying Falcon 9 and Crew Dragon missions for paying customers. SpaceX also spent the year expanding its satellite internet constellation called Starlink and developing its next rocket, the colossal Starship.

Reuse has been the key to the space tourism boom. Blue Origin and Virgin Galactic plan to operate their spacecraft many times to achieve profitability. The Falcon 9 booster that launched Isaacman and his crew into orbit landed on a specialized drone ship in the Atlantic Ocean. It was the booster’s third flight; and SpaceX will now inspect it and prepare it to fly again. The Crew Dragon capsule that is hosting the Inspiration 4 mission, Resilience, previously brought a crew of astronauts to the ISS in the Crew-1 mission. Resilience is scheduled to host another space tourism mission next year.

American businessman Jeff Bezos poses with the other passengers New Shepard’s first crewed flight to space. From left to right: Mark Bezos, American executive; Jeff Bezos, founder of Blue Origin; Oliver Daemen, Dutch physics student; and Wally Funk, American pilot and aviation expert. Credit: © Blue Origin

The world’s richest man, his brother, an 82-year old woman, and a physics student sealed themselves up in a tiny capsule and flew into space. This might sound like the setup of a joke, but that’s what happened today. American businessman Jeff Bezos flew to space with three companions in the first crewed flight of the New Shepard rocket, developed by Bezos’s aerospace company Blue Origin. Their flight came exactly 52 years after the Apollo 11 moon landing.

The New Shepard rocket takes off on July 20 carrying its first group of passengers. Both the booster and the capsule landed back near the launch pad about 10 minutes later.
Credit: © Blue Origin

The rocket, a small reusable booster and capsule called New Shepard, took off this morning from Texas. New Shepard is named after Alan Shepard, the first American to reach space. The rocket rose more than 100 miles (61 kilometers) straight into the air. The booster separated from the capsule and landed using its engines. The capsule floated back down to the ground on parachutes. The whole flight lasted about 10 minutes. Along for the ride were Bezos’ brother Mark, the American aerospace pioneer Mary Wallace “Wally” Funk, and 18-year-old physics student Oliver Daemen.

Bezos, who made billions from his online shopping company Amazon, founded Blue Origin in 2000. The company spent years developing and testing the New Shepard rocket. In 2015 a New Shepard rocket reached the edge of space and then returned safely to Earth, landing vertically. It was the first rocket to do so, narrowly beating the first successful landing of SpaceX’s much larger Falcon 9 by less than a month.

The participants of the New Shepard flight set multiple records. But Bezos lost out on his own record, however. Until a couple of weeks ago, it appeared that he was going to be the first mogul to fly to space aboard his own spacecraft. But that honor instead went to the British businessman Richard Branson, who flew on a spaceplane of his own space tourism company. The July 11 mission was originally scheduled to be a test flight, but Branson added himself to the manifest after Blue Origin announced Bezos’s flight.

Wally Funk trained as an astronaut in the 1960’s. She was part of a privately-funded program that subjected women to the same testing and training as the men who became part of the United States’ Mercury Program. Although these women, later known as the Mercury 13, were not permitted to become astronauts, Funk never quit on her dream of going to space. Earlier this year, Bezos surprised Funk with a seat on the inaugural crewed flight. At 82, she became the oldest person to go to space. She surpassed the American astronaut and senator John Glenn, who returned to space in 1998 at the age of 77 aboard the space shuttle.

Oliver Daemen became the youngest person to go to space. He surpassed the American astronaut Sally Ride, who was 32 when she flew aboard the space shuttle Challenger in 1983. Daemen also became the first paying space tourist to fly aboard a privately-developed spacecraft. A handful of tourists have gone to space already. But all of these were aboard Soyuz rockets developed and launched by the Russian government. Only Virgin Galactic employees flew aboard Branson’s flight.

This fourth seat was highlighted by profligate spending, mystery, and intrigue. Blue Origin put up the seat for auction, with the money being donated to the company’s charity. An anonymous bidder paid $28 million for the seat. But last week, the company announced that the bidder had a scheduling conflict and would go on a later flight instead. Blue Origin offered the seat to Dutch investor Joes Daemen, who had purchased a seat for a later Blue Origin flight. He gave the seat to his son, Oliver.

Blue Origin will start offering rides to other paying customers soon. Although the Billionaire’s Space Race is over, the battle for control of the space tourism market is just beginning.

British businessman Richard Branson poses in front of the spaceplane VSS Unity with the other missions specialists of Virgin Galactic’s Unity-22 mission. The glass-paneled terminal of Spaceport America is visible in the background. From left to right: Beth Moses, Chief Astronaut Instructor; Branson; Sirisha Bandla, Vice President of Government Affairs and Research Operations; Colin Bennett, Lead Operations Engineer.
Credit: © Virgin Galactic

After years of delay, the age of space tourism may finally be upon us. On Sunday morning, the British businessman Richard Branson flew aboard his company Virgin Galactic’s spaceplane in a suborbital flight. Soon, paying customers will get their turn to go to space.

Branson rode with five other members of his company on VSS Unity.VSS Unity is a SpaceShipTwo model spaceplane. A special aircraft called a WhiteKnightTwo takes off from a runway carrying a SpaceShipTwo. A WhiteKnightTwo named VMS Eve took off from Spaceport America in New Mexico and carried VSS Unity up above 45,0000 feet (14,000 meters). After Eve released Unity, pilots ignited a rocket engine and the craft soared up to 300,000 feet (90,000 meters). After a few minutes of weightless freefall, Unity glided back down to Earth. The whole flight lasted about 90 minutes.

Branson and the other mission specialists float around the cabin of VSS Unity during the spaceplane’s July 10 flight.
Credit: © Virgin Galactic

Branson has always relished spectacle, and Sunday’s flight was no different. Virgin Galactic’s live stream of the event was hosted by the American comedian Stephen Colbert. The landing featured the debut performance of “New Normal”, a new song by American singer Khalid. South-African-born entrepreneur and fellow space baron Elon Musk (founder of SpaceX) was among the well-wishers at Spaceport America.

Branson’s flight is a hopeful milestone on Virgin Galactic’s long, fraught road toward commercial operations. Branson founded the company in 2004. He licensed the technology of the American aerospace company Scaled Composites, which won the Ansari X Prize that year for developing a rapidly reusable launch vehicle. Virgin Galactic unveiled SpaceShipTwo in 2006. But the next year, an explosion during a ground test killed three Scaled Composites employees and injured three others. In 2014, a SpaceShipTwo named VSS Enterprise broke apart during a test flight. The pilot was killed and the copilot seriously injured. Despite these setbacks, Virgin Galactic forged ahead. Unity was completed in 2016 and underwent several test flights prior to its mission Sunday.

Space tourism existed long before Unity’s flight on Sunday. In 2001, the American investment consultant Dennis Tito became the first space tourist, visiting the International Space Station (ISS) aboard a Russian Soyuz craft. Over the next several years, a handful of space tourists made similar trips. But they all paid tens of millions of dollars to buy extra seats aboard government-funded spacecraft.

Until about a week ago, it appeared that American businessman Jeff Bezos, not Branson, was going to be the first mogul to fly to space aboard his own spacecraft. Bezos, who made billions from his online shopping company Amazon, founded an aerospace company called Blue Origin in 2000. Bezos is scheduled to launch aboard his company’s reusable New Glenn rocket on July 20. Although Branson denied the existence of a race between the two, he added himself to Sunday’s flight, which was originally scheduled as a test flight, after Blue Origin’s announcement.

Virgin Galactic plans to hold two more test flights before starting paying trips, probably sometime in 2022. Then, it will begin scheduling rides for the 600 people who purchased tickets.

Space tourism will still be for the very wealthy. Virgin Galactic was selling tickets for $250,000 apiece before it paused ticket sales after the 2014 accident. Blue Origin has not yet begun selling tickets, but they are expected to be within the same range. So, if you’d like to go to space, save your pennies!