• Jeff Bezos, Elon Musk or even Richard Branson… For several years, these three billionaires have been fighting a merciless battle to become the next space emperor.

  • From July 11, Richard Branson will fly aboard a vessel of his company Virgin Galactic, hoping to precede Jeff Bezos, whose trip is scheduled for July 20.

  • Tourism, ego war or attractive sector… Why are the tech giants embarking on the conquest of space?

Who will be the first to get laid?

They are called Jeff Bezos, Elon Musk or Richard Branson.

They are entrepreneurs, billionaires and have one thing in common: their desire to conquer space.

For several years, the aerospace industry has had to make room for Space X, BlueOrigin and Virgin Galactic.

If their projects are different, competition is raging between the three entrepreneurs.

But why are they so interested in the conquest of space?

Conquering space ... or tourism?

The three billionaires have embarked on the race to conquer space for twenty years: Jeff Bezos in 2000 with Blue Origin, Elon Musk in 2002 with Space X and Richard Branson in 2004 with Virgin Galactic.

But lately, the race has picked up.

Space X, which has been providing regular refueling to the International Space Station (ISS) since 2012, has been handling the transfer of NASA astronauts aboard the ISS since 2020. But Elon Musk's two rivals have not said their last word. On July 11, the Briton Richard Branson will fly, with three other people, aboard the VSS Unity spacecraft for a trip of about ten minutes. A week later, on July 20, it will be Jeff Bezos' turn to be part, with his brother and an anonymous passenger, in the first manned flight of the New Shepard rocket, developed by his company Blue Origin.

For its part, Space X also intends to send several tourists, by the end of 2021, to the ISS aboard the Crew Dragon capsule for a trip of several days.

“You have to distinguish between the thefts of Jeff Bezos and Richard Branson and those of Elon Musk.

The flights operated by Blue Origin and Virgin Galactic are short suborbital flights, at the frontier of space, only 80 or 100 kilometers from Earth.

These are flights that will last about ten minutes with two or three minutes of weightlessness, ”explains Philippe Droneau, director in charge of the Cité de l'Espace (Toulouse).

“Conversely, the Space X project is a tourist flight in orbit, on the ISS, for several days.

There is a huge difference, ”he adds.

Billionaire-friendly legislation

And if the three entrepreneurs are embarking on the race to conquer space, it is above all because it can pay off big. Virgin Galactic has already sold nearly 600 tickets for the next flights - for a price between 200,000 and 250,000 dollars (165,000 and 205,000 euros) - and thousands of people are still on the waiting list. On the Blue Origin side, the third ticket auctioned to travel alongside Jeff Bezos and his brother Mark, on July 20, has been bought for $ 28 million by an anonymous person. "Ultimately, the conquest of space will pay off, that's for sure, but we don't yet know when", analyzes Victor Dos Santos Paulino, associate professor at Toulouse Business School and director of the Sirius Chair,dedicated to research on rights and business management for activities in the space sector. “And even if the projects don't come to an end, these billionaires are smart enough to attract attention, and therefore investors, and that makes money. They are in an economic position which means that, in any case, they are winners. "

And if billionaires can now invest in this sector, it is thanks to a law passed under Barack Obama, in 2015, which authorizes American citizens to undertake the commercial exploration and exploitation of “space resources”. The development of space projects is therefore carried out jointly with juicy public contracts, offered mainly by NASA and the American army, which increasingly subcontract to the private sector. “With this new regulation, NASA has changed the way it contracts with private companies. This is what allowed Elon Musk to offer his reusable launcher, it was a real revolution, ”explains Victor Dos Santos Paulino, adding that private companies are now becoming subcontractors of increasingly complex elements.Conversely, Europe "is not as advanced in this desire to give more autonomy to private companies in the space sector", underlines the teacher.

Last remaining frontier

But motivation is not just economic.

How not to talk about these three characters without talking about ego?

“They are geniuses, extremely rich, sometimes more than certain states.

There is a question of ego, of exceptionality, almost of transhumanism ”, affirms Philippe Droneau, who recognizes that the three billionaires are also passionate about aeronautics.

“You can compare that to the 19th century, when billionaires challenged themselves to discover areas never visited.

If we are in a logic of exploration, the last frontier that remains, the last place to explore, is space.

There is a kind of challenge, a challenge, ”adds Victor Dos Santos Paulino.

And to be the first and flatter your ego, anything seems possible.

This is what led Richard Branson to announce, last week, that he planned to fly on July 11 - and no longer in 2022 - aboard a Virgin Galactic vessel, hoping to cap Jeff at the pole. Bezos, whose weightless journey is scheduled a few days later.

The survival of humanity?

What if we were bad mouthed, and these billionaires were actually trying to ensure the survival of our species?

For Victor Dos Santos Paulino, if some of them have embarked on the space race, it is for ethical considerations.

"Elon Musk, for example, believes that the future of humanity at a distant horizon, it will be to leave the earth."

By 2025, the boss of Space X wants to send thousands of rockets to Mars to create an autonomous human colony, the only "lifeline of humanity".

“Our solar system can accommodate 1,000 billion human beings.

Imagine how incredible and dynamic this civilization would be with its thousands of Mozart and Einsteins, ”said Jeff Bezos, also hoping to be the first to colonize space.

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