Space tourism
To the Moon and back 🚀
Thrill-seekers might soon be able to get their adrenaline kicks - and
envy-inducing Instagram snaps - from the final frontier, as space
tourism finally lifts off. All you'll need is a bit of patience. And a
lot of money. Here's a rundown of where things stand. Two companies are
offering short "suborbital" hops of a few minutes: Jeff Bezos' Blue
Origin and Virgin Galactic, founded by Richard Branson. Blue Origin's
New Shepard rocket takes off vertically and the crew capsule detaches
and crosses the Karman line (62 miles, or 100 kilometers, in altitude),
before falling back to Earth with three parachutes. Virgin Galactic uses
a massive carrier plane, which takes off from a horizontal runway then
drops a rocket-powered spaceplane. This in turn soars to over 50 miles
altitude before gliding back. In both cases, up to six passengers are
able to unbuckle from their seats to experience a few minutes of
weightlessness and take in the view of Earth from space.
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