Richard Branson will travel to space before Jeff Bezos 0:57
(CNN Spanish) -
This weekend, British businessman and billionaire Richard Branson will travel to space aboard a Virgin Galactic spacecraft, a launch that will take place nine days before the richest man in the world, Jeff Bezos, take your own journey into space through Blue Origin.
For his part, Elon Musk, founder of SpaceX, is planning his own launch into space scheduled for late 2021. The difference is that, so far, Musk has not announced his intentions to be part of the Inspiration4 crew.
Space tourism: the civilians who have already been and those who plan to go soon
Although Branson will go into space a couple of days before Bezos, the Briton told CNN "I honestly don't see this as a space race," despite the proximity between missions.
Here we explain the details of each of the missions to space promoted by this trio of billionaires, who would mark the first steps so that the next great vacation destination is out of this world.
Orbital space vs.
suborbital space
One of the key differences between the Virgin Galactic, Blue Origin and Space X missions is that the first two missions will be flights to suborbital space, where travelers will briefly expose themselves to weightlessness and see the sights of space during a flight. at the edge of the atmosphere, approximately 96 kilometers above Earth.
Both the flights manned by Branson and Bezos will be short, so they will hop on and off the same day.
The Virgin Galactic flight will travel more than 80 kilometers above the Earth and the Blue Origin flight will travel more than 100 kilometers above the Earth, both distances are considered the limit of outer space according to the United States Government.
advertising
Jeff Bezos will go into space for 11 minutes.
Know how dangerous it is
Additionally, suborbital flights require much less power and speed.
That means less time is required for the rocket to burn out, lower temperatures burning the exterior of the spacecraft, less force and compression to tear the spacecraft, and generally less chance of something going very wrong.
For its part, the SpaceX mission will reach orbital space, a journey that involves high-speed takeoffs that break gravity and longer durations.
Space X's Crew Dragon ship will reach an altitude of 540 kilometers and will orbit Earth every 90 minutes during the journey that will last approximately 3 days.
First space tourist says it was the best time of his life
Orbital rockets need to pack up enough power to reach at least 2,759 km / h (17,000 miles per hour), known as orbital velocity, essentially giving a spacecraft enough energy to continue rotating around Earth instead of being immediately dragged down by gravity.
The space tourism race
Who will travel to space
Virgin Galactic:
Branson will occupy one of six available seats within the Unity 22 spacecraft in order to evaluate the flight experience to enhance the journey for future customers. The crew is joined by Beth Moses, Lead Instructor; Colin Bennet, Virgin Galactic Chief Operating Engineer; Sirisha Bandla, Virgin Galactic Vice President of Government Affairs and Investigative Operations; and pilots Dave Mackay and Michael Masucci.
Blue Origin:
Jeff Bezos and his brother, Mark Bezos, will occupy two of the six available seats inside the New Shepard ship.
They will be joined by the as-yet unknown winner of the $ 28 million auctioned ticket and 82-year-old Wally Funk, who was a member of the "Mercury 13" program and trained to be an astronaut but failed to go to space.
The ship has six seats, but so far only the Bezos brothers, Funk and the auction winner have been confirmed to attend.
He is 82 years old and will fulfill his dream of going to space 1:09
Inspiration4:
The crew will be made up of billionaire Jared Isaacman, founder and CEO of Shift4 Payments, who will donate three of the seats within the Crew Dragon to members who were selected “to represent the pillars of the mission: leadership, hope, generosity and progress, ”according to SpaceX.
Joining the trip is Hayley Arceneaux, 29, a cancer survivor and physician assistant at St. Jude Children's Hospital in Tennessee.
Arceneaux will become the youngest American to visit space and the first person with a prosthesis to travel to space.
There is also Dr. Sian Proctor, professor of geosciences and specialist in scientific communication;
and Christopher Sembroski, a counselor at the Space Camp educational camp and a former US Air Force military man.
The Dragon ship has seating for up to seven passengers, so more people could join the trip.
For now, it is not known if Musk will be part of the Inspiration4 mission.
SpaceX to launch flight with 4 tourists 1:04
Francesca Street and Jackie Wattles contributed to this report.
Blue OriginElon MuskJeff BezosRichard BransonSpaceXSpace TourismVirgin Galactic