- Space is infinite, it's there to explore.
- Our vision is millions of people
living and working in space.
- One's got to fantasize and dream about these things.
- If we're gonna continue to make progress,
and make sure that our descendants
have better lives than us, we need to go to space.
It's not optional.
- [Laura] Jeff Bezos, the founder of Blue Origin,
and Richard Branson, the founder of Virgin Galactic,
are in a head-to-head race to travel to the edge of space.
In June, Bezos announced his plans
to travel to space on July 20th, along with his brother,
as inaugural passengers
on Blue Origin's New Shepard spacecraft.
- I really want you to come with me.
Would you?
- Are you serious?
- I am, I think it would be meaningful.
Have my brother there.
- [Laura] Weeks after Bezos's announcement,
Branson unveiled plans to travel
on Virgin Galactic's fourth crude space flight on July 11th,
just nine days before the Blue Origin trip.
- This July, our dream will become a reality.
(exciting music)
- The important thing about having both the founders go up
is it's just the validation.
- [Laura] So, two billionaire founders,
two trips into suborbital space just days apart.
But, the two companies and their missions
have big differences.
Let's begin with the spacecrafts and their flight plans.
- Galactic is much more akin to, you know,
going up in a commercial airliner.
Blue Origin's New Shepherd rocket
is much more, you know,
the typical view of what a space rocket looks like.
- [Laura] Virgin Galactic's planned flight
begins near Truth or Consequences, New Mexico,
where this mothership called the VMS Eve will take off
with a spaceship attached called the VSS Unity.
At an altitude of almost 45,000 feet,
the airplane will release the spacecraft
whose pilot will rocket the vessel into suborbital space,
eventually reaching over 50 miles high.
This is the altitude that NASA defines as the edge of space.
The flight will carry two pilots
and four mission specialists in the cabin,
but no paying passengers.
And the approximately 90 minute trip
will end after the craft of glides to Earth,
making a runway landing back in New Mexico.
Now, onto Blue Origin,
whose New Shepard spacecraft
is slated to launch from West Texas
on its first crude flight.
The vessel, which can travel at
three times the speed of sound,
includes a rocket and a fully autonomous six person capsule.
Approximately three minutes after takeoff,
the capsule and the rocket will separate.
The rocket will then return to Earth,
deploying drag breaks to reduce speeds by half,
while the capsule travels briefly above the Karman Line.
This is an imaginary boundary, 62 miles above sea level,
that is commonly defined as the beginning of space.
It's approximately 12 miles beyond the high point
for the Virgin Galactic flight.
- Practically, there's absolutely no difference
between 50 miles or 62 miles,
or indeed the surface of the moon.
Humans couldn't survive in any three of these.
There's a little bit of bragging rights,
but officially, you're an astronaut if you go past 50 miles.
- [Laura] The Blue Origin capsule
will float back to Earth via parachute,
landing in the West Texas desert,
approximately 10 minutes after launch.
- At the top of that arc
is where the passengers will actually be weightless.
And it's just gonna be for two or three minutes.
Now from the companies,
they both say passengers will be allowed to
unbuckle the seatbelts and float around
the cabin for those two or three minutes.
- Because these flights are suborbital,
they're regulated differently than commercial air travel.
Congress agreed in 2004 to let the space tourism industry
self-regulate to speed its preparations
for passenger flights.
A spokesperson from the Federal Aviation Administration
said its jurisdiction is limited
to protecting public safety and the environment
during launches and re-entry.
- With Virgin Galactic,
the FAA has to inspect and approve both the mother ship,
and the rocket ship, and it licenses the pilots.
Blue Origin is different
that it's a more traditional space rocket.
The FAA's oversight of rockets is actually
very different and evolving, it's more self-regulation,
but it doesn't actually need formal approval.
The formal approval it needs, just like Virgin Galactic,
is to carry paying passengers.
- [Laura] The FAA granted approval
for Virgin Galactic's full commercial space launch license.
And the company says it hopes to launch
commercial service next year.
Blue Origin has applied for similar approval from the FAA,
which it expects to receive by July 20th.
Aside from Branson, passengers on Virgin Galactic's flight
include Beth Moses,
the company's chief astronaut instructor,
and Sirisha Bandla, a vice president
focused on government affairs and research.
The company has yet to disclose prices
for its future commercial service.
But executives have said trips could cost
less than $500,000.
The passengers on the Blue Origin trip will be Bezos,
his brother, Mark, Wally Funk,
and 82 year old pilot with space training.
- It was the best thing that ever happened to me!
(Bezos laughing)
- [Laura] And the winner of a charity auction
who bid $28 million for a seat.
- Sold! $28 million.
(quizzical music)
- [Laura] As the missions themselves vary,
so too do the milestones these flights achieve.
If all goes as planned,
Branson will be the first of the two founders
to go into space,
while Bezos's Blue Origin
will be the first of the two companies
to carry out a space flight with a paying passenger.
- Virgin Galactic is basically a pure play
space terrorism business.
If it's safe enough for the charismatic
and well known founder to go up
and come down safely, then you know,
that will certainly help the brand.
- [Countdown] Two, one.
(rockets blast)
- With Bezos and Blue Origin,
slightly different motivations,
the validation that they've managed to put someone,
or in this case, four people to the edge of space
just helps the broader Blue Origin business,
which isn't just space tourism,
it's government contracts and military contracts.
So for both companies, it's a huge validation,
that they've arrived,
and that they can, you know, use this as a springboard
for the next stage of their different businesses.