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posted by martyb on Wednesday June 09 2021, @12:51AM   Printer-friendly
from the competition dept.

Branson may make a last-ditch effort to beat Bezos into space:

Amazon founder Jeff Bezos said on Monday he would fly on the first human spaceflight of his company's New Shepard spacecraft. This mission will launch from Blue Origin's spaceport in West Texas on July 20, which is the anniversary of the Apollo 11 lunar landing in 1969.

With this timeline, Bezos seemed almost certain to beat his suborbital space tourism rival, Sir Richard Branson, into space. Setting aside whether Branson's VSS Unity vehicle reaches space—its maximum altitude is just below the Kármán line, or 100 km—this is nonetheless a meaningful milestone.


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  • (Score: 2) by NateMich on Wednesday June 09 2021, @01:50AM (1 child)

    by NateMich (6662) on Wednesday June 09 2021, @01:50AM (#1143382)

    Yeah, Branson's rocket plane can get to "space". The New Shephard can also get into "space".
    Let's see which "space" billionaire can get there first. Very exciting.

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  • (Score: 2) by DannyB on Wednesday June 09 2021, @03:13PM

    by DannyB (5839) Subscriber Badge on Wednesday June 09 2021, @03:13PM (#1143539) Journal

    Yawn!

    Wake me up when either of these space billionaires can actually put something useful, especially a human, into orbit.

    This first to orbit mine-is-bigger-than-yours measuring contest seems like neither Bezos nor Branson are actually serious about space. Both of them seem interested and indeed even focused upon sub-orbital joyrides. No wonder they can't yet put anything into orbit.

    Hey Bezos, how about some fright certified BE-4 engines that ULA needs in order to fulfill its military contracts?

    --
    People today are educated enough to repeat what they are taught but not to question what they are taught.