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Lakewood Times

Lakewood Times

Lakewood Times

    Billionaire Space Race

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    We’ve all heard of the Space Race from the Cold War Era, but why is such a topic relevant once again? Billionaire rivals Elon Musk, Sir Richard Branson, and Jeff Bezos threw themselves into a race to become the first company to allow commercial trips to space.

    Bezos, the founder of Amazon and the world’s richest man, started the company named Blue Origin in 2000. He was one of the first billionaires to jump into the competition. His plan is to be able to send “space tourists” into flight, with tickets planned to go on sale next year. Those tickets, according to sources, will cost between $200,000 and $300,000.

    Musk is the co-founder, CEO, and product architect of Tesla. He started his space company, SpaceX, in 2002. His plan is to eventually be able to populate other planets, Mars being the first choice. SpaceX currently has over 100 launches since it’s founding 16 years ago. Currently, SpaceX is working on the launch of Dragon 2, which is set to launch in June of 2019. Dragon 2 will be on a 14-day test flight to the International Space Station.

    Branson is the founder Virgin Galactic. The company’s plan is to create a new generation of space vehicles and to be able to open space to anybody. Their main mission seems to be the want of being able to unite people through the fascination of space. The two vehicles that the company has manufactured so far are WhiteKnightTwo and SpaceShipTwo. WhiteKnightTwo is designed to carry SpaceShipTwo at high altitudes, before SpaceShipTwo is launched to carry passengers on a short space tour. The first flight took place on December 21, 2008, and has been flown more than 200 times since then.

    So far, the biggest rivalry is between Musk and SpaceX and Bezos and Blue Origin, though that doesn’t mean that Branson and Virgin Galactic are completely ignored by the other companies. Now the question is, who will be the first company to get to space, and how will they do it?

    “Elon Musk is definitely going to be the first,” said LHS Junior Alejandero Mercado. “He has more creative ideas and is the closest to making it possible.”

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