How do you live there? Nobody knows,” he said. “Getting to Mars is only part of the problem. Rand Simberg, space technology consultant, and author of “ Safe is Not an Option,” finds Musk’s desire to be particularly lofty. K-pop star T.O.P and DJ Steve Aoki, along with Japanese billionaire Yusaku Maezawa, were reportedly going to Mars with Musk and SpaceX.īut will any of them ever get off the ground? In September 2022, an unmanned Blue Origin New Shepard rocket launch went wrong, with the capsule where passengers would be strapped in parachuting safely to the ground. ![]() The vehicle cleared 62 miles, passing the Kármán Line, which the company described as “the internationally recognized boundary of space.”Ī-listers reportedly waiting to fly with Virgin include Leonardo DiCaprio, Tom Hanks and Katy Perry. Besides barrier-breaking female aviator Wally Funk, who flew with Bezos on the initial flight, Blue Origin later sent up celebs William Shatner and Michael Strahan. REUTERSīezos - wearing a cowboy hat, no less - followed suit on July 20 but seemed to be ahead in the name game. After four minutes of flight, Elon Musk’s Starship exploded in the sky earlier this month. He went 53 miles into the sky, passing what is recognized by the US as the boundary of space, with two pilots and three employees, in his Virgin Galactic VSS Unity, on July 11, 2021. “They are of the most iconic entrepreneurs and all used to winning.”īranson initially won the race by nine days. “There are big egos at play here,” Brad Stone, author of “ Amazon Unbound: Jeff Bezos and the Invention of a Global Empire,” told The Post at the time. In 2021, Bezos, now 59, and Branson, 72, were in a very public rush to see who could fly to space first. Richard Branson’s Virgin Orbit, a satellite company, recently filed for bankruptcy. Virgin Orbit spent a lot of money developing a rocket that couldn’t go anywhere.”Īt the start of the 21st century, Musk, Bezos and Branson all expressed grand ambitions to send rockets blasting off into space. “Frankly, he was never a major player to begin with. “Branson is completely out of it,” said Berger, referring to serious space exploration. Blue Origin/Cover Images/Įarlier this month, Richard Branson’s satellite-launch company, Virgin Orbit - an affiliate to his space tourism firm, Virgin Galactic - went bankrupt after failing to secure funding. “That is not happening.” Jeff Bezos has been slowed down in his space quest after an aborted mission led to a temporary stop on flights. “Each program at Blue Origin is supposed to be bringing in as much as it spends,” Eric Berger, author of “ Liftoff: Elon Musk and the Desperate Early Days that Launched SpaceX,” told The Post. It’s been reported that Blue Origin “ hopes to return to flight soon.” There were no injuries and the problem was identified as an overheated rocket engine, but flights are currently grounded. REUTERS When the rocket launched by Elon Musk’s SpaceX blew up after four minutes in the sky, he was already prepared for a next test launch. Elon Musk is said to be winning the billionaire space race despite a major stumble. The abort system kicked in and the capsule, which was created for passengers, parachuted to the ground. ![]() In September 2022, an unmanned New Shepard rocket blasted off - only for flames to shoot out of the bottom. ![]() Over at Blue Origin, the brainchild of Amazon founder Jeff Bezos, things have not been perfect either. It’s just the latest setback in the once high-flying billionaire space race. ![]() Elon is very good at managing expectations.” “Elon lowered the expectations to getting off the launchpad, and it did, but it didn’t succeed the way it was originally intended to. The original plan was to have Starship crash off the coast of Kauai after a 90-minute flight,” Messier added. “I’d say three months is optimistic,” Douglas Messier, managing editor of ParabolicArc, a website that covers commercial space, told The Post. It may not happen so quickly, especially with an expected FAA investigation. It is not every billionaire who can watch his dream project literally incinerate - at a cost of some $67 million - and deem it an “ exciting” launch.īut shortly after SpaceX’s Starship rocket blew up on April 20, following just four minutes in the sky, Elon Musk victoriously tweeted, “Congrats team on an exciting test launch of Starship! Learned a lot for next test launch in a few months.” Twitter glitches disrupt Ron DeSantis’ presidential run announcement Twitter’s new CEO pushed NBCUniversal to buy the social network years ago: sources DeSantis raised $8.2M in 24 hours after 2024 launch, campaign saysĮlon Musk’s Neuralink gets FDA approval for human test of brain implants
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