Difference between space flights of Branson, Bezos and Musk

While Richard Branson took off to space on his own rocket on July 11, Jeff Bezos hurled into  space on July 20. Now that space tourism is all the rage on social media, the addition of SpaceX’s space mission that will happen on September 15 is again big news. Here’s a look at the difference between these three space journeys. 

Type of vehicle

Richard Branson’s Virgin Galactic: SpaceShipTwo was carried on mothership VMS Eve. It is a reusable space plane that was released into the suborbital plane at about 50,000 feet above sea level. 

Jeff Bezos’ Blue Origin: New Shepard’s rocket-and-capsule was released vertically into suborbital space. After separation, the rocket came back to the launchpad, with the capsule falling back to earth.

Elon Musk’s SpaceX: The Dragon capsule is set to be launched by a reusable Falcon rocket. 

Time Duration

Richard Branson’s space trip lasted about 90 minutes, right from take-off to landing. 

Blue Origin’s flight took 10 minutes to launch and make the capsule touchdown happen. 

Elon Musk’s SpaceX space trip is scheduled to last for three days in space. 

Space or edge of space?

The cut off point of the Karman line for the US is 80 km. It is the boundary of space located 100 k above mean sea level. 

Branson’s Virgin Galactic flight clocked a height of 86km while Jeff Bezos’ Blue Origin flight reached a point 107km high. SpaceX’s Earth Orbit mission plans to travel over 300km. 

Crew

Virgin Galactic: Branson travelled with Beth Moses, Chief Astronaut Instructor at Virgin Galactic, Colin Bennett, Lead Operations Engineer at Virgin Galactic and Sirisha Bandla, Vice President of Government Affairs and Research Operations at Virgin Galactic.

Dave Mackay and Michael Masucci were the pilots flying VSS Unity, and CJ Sturckow and Kelly Latimer were flying VMS Eve.

Blue Origin: Bezos took the trip with his brother Mark Bezos, Wally Funk and 18-year-old high school graduate Oliver Daemen. The flight was without a pilot. 

SpaceX: The Dragon spacecraft has a capacity of seven passengers. It will be the first all-civilian rocket trip, including Jared Isaacman, Hayley Arceneaux, Sian Proctor, and Christopher Sembroski.