The door to space tourism slowly opens to ordinary people

　　Since the 1960s, hundreds of people on Earth have successfully conducted suborbital space flights.

But it was only the power of the state that led them to achieve space travel until this year.

　　Branson, Bezos, Musk...all want to break through the door of vast space in this year.

In this process, their identities have changed from being hugely rich to being pioneers in realizing their own and more people's space dreams.

　　One

　　On July 11, US local time, Branson, the founder of Virgin Galactic, set off from the U.S. Spaceport in New Mexico and took the Unity spacecraft with five crew members to a place about 86 kilometers from the surface of the earth, completing a space trip.

　　The beginning of Virgin Galactic has to start with Rutan, an aerospace engineer in the 1990s.

What Rutan wants to do most is to help ordinary people complete space travel.

The task he gave himself was to design a space plane that would make ordinary people's travel experience similar to flying by plane.

　　In June 2004, the spacecraft designed by Rutan executed and completed the first privately funded manned space flight. This is the predecessor of Unity, Spaceship One.

　　The success of Spaceship One attracted the attention of Branson, who also had a dream of space tourism.

He and Rutan established a joint venture spaceship company and announced that they would use Spaceship One as a model to manufacture aircraft that can provide commercial space travel.

　　However, Branson embarked on a bumpy road.

　　In July 2007, Spacecraft II exploded during testing of rocket components, killing three employees and seriously injuring three.

　　In October 2014, during the 55th test flight of the spacecraft, which had been renamed Virgin Galactic Enterprise, it disintegrated 11 seconds after the carrier aircraft was untied, and the pilot was killed and injured.

　　Since then, Virgin Galactic's dream of completing space travel has been repeatedly postponed until this success.

　　Branson’s arrival at the edge of space and his safe return to Earth marked a turning point in the billionaire’s decades-long commitment to creating a space tourism industry.

The test flight will evaluate the system and passenger experience and further verify its safety.

　　It is said that Virgin Galactic plans to conduct two more test flights, and will begin regular commercial operations in early 2022, and will eventually achieve 400 flights from the US spaceport each year.

　　The cost of the space trip is 100,000 U.S. dollars per person.

Virgin Galactic reports that about 600 people have booked the company's space travel business, with a deposit of more than $80 million.

　　two

　　Nine days after Branson’s success in the sky, on July 20th, Amazon founder Bezos and his brother will enter space as the first passengers of Blue Origin for suborbital travel.

　　In 2000, Bezos founded Blue Origin to improve the safety of space travel and reduce costs.

In 2012, Blue Origin successfully invented a manned spacecraft escape system that is different from the previous space shuttle.

　　Since 2015, in almost all test flights, the test flight altitude of the blue origin unmanned aerial vehicle has exceeded 100 kilometers, which is an altitude that Branson has never been able to reach.

　　In May 2019, Bezos announced Blue Origin's space vision and plans to implement a lunar landing program called "Blue Moon" in 2024.

　　Blue Origin claims that its rocket and space capsule are designed to automatically send six passengers to a suborbital space about 100 kilometers above the earth. This height is sufficient for passengers to experience a sense of weightlessness for a few minutes and allow them to travel See the curvature of the Earth before the pressurized space capsule parachute returns.

The space capsule has 6 observation windows, which are almost three times the height of the observation windows on the Boeing 747 jetliner.

　　Both Blue Origin and Virgin Galactic are committed to enabling more people to enjoy the beauty of space without special long-term training.

　　In the upcoming space debut, Bezos even invited an 82-year-old man to fly with him.

She is expected to become the oldest person in space.

　　The accident rate of Blue Origin is also better than that of Virgin Galactic.

According to the official website of Blue Origin, since 2012, the company has been conducting flight tests on the new Shepard rocket and its safety system. The project has had 15 successful consecutive missions, including 3 successful escape tests.

　　Nevertheless, the risk is still not small.

Bezos said: "This is an adventure. It means a lot to me."

　　three

　　In September of this year, the Space Exploration Technology Company under Tesla boss Musk also prepared to send 4 ordinary tourists into space, but this time it is not an "economic tour" of suborbital travel, but rather sends tourists to 539 kilometers high It’s a "luxury tour" flying around the earth for 3 days on its orbit.

　　In 2002, Musk founded a space exploration technology company to provide commercial and government space launch services with the "Falcon 9" and heavy Falcon rockets.

Musk's goal is to reduce the cost of space transportation, making it possible for people to live on Mars.

　　The company's "Dragon" spacecraft achieved its maiden flight in 2010 and has undertaken many cargo missions to transport materials to the International Space Station.

On May 31, 2020, two astronauts boarded the "Dragon" spacecraft to arrive at the International Space Station. This was the first time in history that a private space company carried astronauts to the International Space Station.

　　In 2015, after many failures, the space exploration technology company finally realized the rocket recovery.

In this way, the rocket can be launched again with a little repair and refuelling.

Allegedly, this can reduce the rocket launch cost to 1% of the original.

Previously, the cost of the "Falcon 9" rocket was 60 million U.S. dollars. After the rocket recovery is implemented, the launch cost may drop to 6 million U.S. dollars.

　　At present, in the business plan of Virgin Galactic and Blue Origin, the market predicts that a ticket for space travel will cost about $200,000.

The luxury tour price of Space Exploration Technology Company will be much more expensive, reaching tens of millions of dollars.

　　Citibank predicts that the space tourism industry will reach US$3 billion in 2030.

Morgan Stanley's judgment is more optimistic, believing that by 2040, the industry will grow to more than $1 trillion.

　　For any newly opened market, the prices of goods and services need to share the heavy early R&D costs.

The key to the decline of market prices lies in two points: first, the expansion of the market; second, sufficient competition.

In 2021, when the curtain of space travel led by the wealthy is slowly opened, what will be the future waiting for more ordinary people?