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you may have heard in the news last year
that richard branson and jeff bezos have
become the first billionaires to get
into space themselves
whatever your thoughts on this it marks
a fascinating point in human history
in the past the space race was
exclusively a contest or collaboration
of nations but now private companies are
beginning to enter the fray
why this sudden change
and what does this mean for the future
of space travel and exploration now that
businesses are starting to look to the
stars what might it mean for humanity's
future
i'm alex mccolgan and you're watching
astrum and while it might be a little
too early to say for sure what the
future brings we can perhaps gain
greater insights into these questions by
looking at why some of these companies
and individuals are reaching for the
stars
the commercialization of space is not a
new thing
in 1962 just five years after the first
artificial satellite was launched by the
ussr the first commercial satellite
telstar one was launched by the atnt
corporation as a means of broadcasting
american television programs to europe
it was launched using a nasa rocket
in 1975 ortrag or the first company to
attempt to develop an alternative
propulsion system for rockets was
founded in stuttgart germany
and in 1984 the u.s president ronald
reagan signed the commercial space
launch act intending to encourage
companies to explore space
satellites have been a staple of modern
life for many years now enabling
internet connections and helping us to
navigate through tools like sat navs
among other things
in other words companies have already
been commercializing space for some time
so what's different about these recent
space flights
well these flights are the first time
that private companies have built their
own rockets and flown their own founders
into space
they represent a turning point in space
exploration and the beginning of a
fledgling space tourism industry where
wealthy individuals can pay to spend
time in space
this could have larger future impacts
than you might think as we'll explore
later in the video
but let's first take a look at some of
the companies that have been developing
their own rockets to travel into space
in particular we'll be looking at virgin
galactic
blue origin
and spacex
as the differing approaches of all of
these companies offer us the best
glimpses of the many possible outcomes
of commercial space flights
to begin with let's examine virgin
galactic as it was richard branson who
won the race to be the first billionaire
to fly into space on their own rocket he
did this on the 11th of july in 2021 but
had actually created virgin galactic
much earlier back in 2004
branson's company the virgin group had
taken an interest in the idea of space
tourism and had noted that another
smaller company scaled composites was
developing their own rocket called
spaceship one
scaled composites hoped to win the
ansari x prize for the first private
crude spacecraft
branson reached out to scaled composites
and convinced them to make the virgin
group their sole customer of future
spacecrafts if they succeeded
they did so on october 4th 2004 with
spaceship 1 flying to 112 kilometers in
altitude and returning to the earth
safely and with a crew
it's worth noting that space is
officially recognized as starting at 100
kilometers by many agencies at a point
known as the karman line named after
theodore von carmen the first person who
tried to define such a boundary
spaceship one did successfully fly over
the carmen line boundary
however nasa sees space as beginning at
around 80 kilometers
with that success under their belt
scaled composites and virgin galactic
began working together to create a whole
fleet of new spaceships model name
spaceship 2 with scaled composites
providing the technical know-how and
virgin galactic providing much of the
initial capital
together they founded the spaceship
company with virgin owning 70 of the
shares
but eventually this rose to 100 when
virgin bought out the company completely
the rocket they designed had one aim in
mind space tourism to get six passengers
and two pilots up into space
to allow them to see incredible views of
the earth and to experience a feeling of
weightlessness
to do this they used an interesting
method
instead of just creating a rocket they
actually attach their spaceship 2 to a
specialized aircraft called white knight
2 which carried the spaceship 2 up to an
altitude of 15 000 meters
then the spacecraft is released and
activates its rocket booster which takes
it to supersonic speeds in just 8
seconds
the spaceship 2 then begins climbing
arcing higher and higher until it was
pointed straight up
it reaches over 80 kilometers the nasa
definition of the boundary of space all
in all this trip up takes roughly an
hour
at the height of spaceship two's climb
it cuts its thrusters and lets gravity
begin to slow its acceleration
this drop in acceleration results in the
passengers on board feeling weightless
sort of like when you throw a ball
straight up in the air there is a brief
moment when the ball is neither rising
nor falling
this moment of perfect balance between
upward motion and gravitational pull
lasts for roughly 5 minutes
after which the spaceship 2 begins to
fall to the earth
it glides its way back down much slower
than a capsule re-entering the
atmosphere by using a feathered re-entry
system before gliding its way back to
its launch pad
this part of the trip would also take
about an hour making for a two-hour
round-trip total
with the success of richard branson
getting into space virgin galactic will
be looking to start flying passengers
into space within this year
but why does this matter
ticket prices for a flight on spaceship
2 or possibly spaceship 3 by then will
cost 250 000
far outside the price range of most
people
shouldn't that money instead be invested
in issues closer to home rather than
providing the rich with a fun day out
well as our next billionaire has pointed
out space tourism might just be the way
that space travel becomes accessible to
everyone
jeff bezos the founder of amazon created
his own space company blue origin with
this aim in mind
bezos has always had an interest in
space mentioning in an interview at the
age of 18 his desire to build space
hotels amusement parks and colonies for
two to three million people who would be
in orbit
however this was not simply as a way to
make money
bezos explained at the time that this
was a way of preserving earth by moving
certain amounts of the population of the
planet it might reduce the strain on the
environment
in 2000 when bezos was wealthy enough
from the success of amazon to start
making his dreams become a reality he
began blue origin funding it privately
with his own money
however to begin with bezos kept the
project fairly secret he did not reveal
publicly that he had founded the company
and even in 2003 when he started buying
land for a possible launch site the
public was left wondering what he wanted
the land for
unlike virgin galactic which leaned on
investors to fund its research and so
was very open with his aims blue origin
did not make much public noise for about
a decade
it accepted a contract from nasa in 2009
and did publish a rough report on the
progress of the rocket it was developing
but it was not until 2015 that it began
to speak more openly about its goals
and those goals had not changed much
from when bezos was young
blue origin's first commercial rocket
the new shepherd named after alan
shepard the first americans go into
space
was also a tourism rocket
but bezos made it clear in speeches that
he did not intend to stop there
in his mind this was just a beginning
in 2016 he made a speech where he
compared the space industry now with
aviation back in its infant days
in the early days of airplane flight a
big portion of people flying were those
seeking the simple thrill of flying in a
plane
this tourism and entertainment factor
expanded interest in the industry which
made it so many companies developed the
technology further
nowadays almost anyone can buy a plane
ticket
although spacecraft tickets are
extremely expensive for now in the long
run bezos said that the space industry
could go the same way
bezos rocket the new shepherd is a
little different in design from
branson's it has a more standard
thruster that carries an observation pod
up into the sky which then detaches
it also goes higher than spaceship 2
crossing the karman line to a height of
around 107 kilometers
it also travels much faster
the whole trip from takeoff to landing
will only last about 11 minutes
unlike virgin galactic's two hours
although it will no doubt carry a
similar price tag for tickets
and bezos is already looking ahead
although 107 kilometers is over the
karman line it is still far from true
orbit
blue origin's future goal is to get
their next rocket named new glenn after
another astronaut into orbit
and as for the project after that
well the name is new armstrong
it is clear that blue origin intends to
make its way to the moon
this is in line with bezos's stated
objectives to pave the way for industry
to more accessibly get into space
although he doesn't expect to see it in
his lifetime bezos has said that he
expects much of the earth's heavy
industry to one day be done in space
[Music]
our last billionaire however has his
eyes on an even further goal
elon musk's company spacex is a little
different from the other two
while virgin galactic and blue origin
focus on space tourism
spacex has been more focused on
commercial ventures
since its founding in 2002 spacex has
grown to dominate the market taking half
of the contracts to launch satellites
into space
part of its success in this area is due
to the fact that its rocket the falcon 9
is reusable
this reusability drastically reduces the
cost of launches making launching
satellites and other cargo much cheaper
the falcon 9 is much larger than new
shepard or spaceship 2.
while the latter two are roughly
comparable at 18 meters in length each
falcon 9 is 70 meters
its thrust is powerful enough to get it
into orbit
it carries a reusable cargo capsule
named the dragon the first of which
carried supplies up to the international
space station
the falcon 9 is able to carry
5500 kilograms of weight into orbit or
more if they're willing to sacrifice the
reusability of the rocket
this ability to transport cargo reflects
a possible future purpose of spacex to
carry freight to mars
elon musk has always made it clear that
he intends to one day see a colony on
mars and in 2001 his company
conceptualized greenhouses that might
grow plants there
any such colony will no doubt need
supplies from earth particularly in his
early days as vital equipment and
personnel would need to be transported
over
any company with the large-scale
capability to transport heavyweights
between earth and mars would stand to
make a lot of money
in 2001 musk attempted to buy rockets
that might start the process of getting
supplies to mars but realized that it
would be cheaper to create his own
thanks to the success of spacex which is
now currently valued at well over 75
billion dollars musk has gained the
funds necessary to further his dream
spacex is developing a new line of
rocket known as starship which they hope
will be able to go to the moon and later
be able to transport 100 tons to mars
before refueling there and flying back
it will be an incredible achievement and
although it takes roughly six months to
travel to mars it will make the red
planet far more accessible to humankind
space tourism lunar landings orbiting
facilities and refueling stations
shipping to mars
these are all the stated objectives of
the commercial interests looking at
space
and although they're still a long way
from achieving some of those goals the
fact that they are making the progress
they are makes those future goals seem
all the more plausible
this is why billionaires traveling into
the edges of space in their own rockets
is exciting
it not only marks the beginning of an
age where trips for the average person
traveling to another planet could one
day be real
but it could lead the way for humanity
truly being an interplanetary species
now i know these companies have their
controversies which i avoided in this
video however what company seems the
most promising to you
maybe there's a company i didn't mention
that has real potential too
do you think it's good for there to be
healthy competition in this industry let
me know what you think in the comments
below
another of spacex's ventures is a
project called starlink a satellite
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