The rivalry between Bezos and Elon Musk, founder of SpaceX and Tesla, the spotlight, but the race between Bezos, who owns Blue Origin, and Branson, who owns Virgin Galactic, to make space tourism a reality could soon make space a destination for ordinary citizens.

Decades after making a name for himself as a reckless billionaire through a series of boat and hot-air balloon expeditions, Richard Branson is preparing to promote his booming space tourism venture with a trip to the edge of space.
According to Reuters, Branson’s company, Virgin Galactic Holdings, is scheduled to launch the (VSS Unity) on its first fully crewed test flight to the edge of space, with the British billionaire founder among the six crew members.
A twin-fuselage aircraft named after Branson’s mother will carry the spacecraft to an altitude of 50,000 feet, where it will be released to ascend, propelled by rocket power, beyond the outer edge of Earth’s atmosphere.
At the peak of the flight—about 89 kilometers above the New Mexico desert—the crew will experience weightlessness for a few minutes before returning to Earth.
If all goes according to plan, the flight will last about 90 minutes and end where it began—on a runway at Spaceport America near the town of Truth.
The Unity 22 mission marks the spacecraft’s 22nd test flight and the company’s fourth crewed mission beyond Earth’s atmosphere.
However, it will be the first flight to carry a full complement of space tourists—two pilots and four passengers, including Branson.
Although the mission is seen as a potential milestone in helping to transform citizen space travel into a major commercial venture, spaceflight remains fraught with risks.
If the flight is successful, it will give Branson bragging rights over his rival Jeff Bezos, founder of the space tourism company Blue Origin, in what has been dubbed ”space race among billionaires.”
Bezos, founder of the retail giant Amazon, is scheduled to travel to space later this month.