Now SpaceX is working on creating a spaceship that will take humans to the moon and Mars. It’s created and flown the most powerful rocket in operation - and performed synchronized landings of its boosters - and developed a spacecraft that successfully ferried astronauts to the International Space Station. Musk’s venture, founded in 2002, has built rockets capable of shuttling satellites and other cargo into Earth’s orbit, a trip that requires speeds topping 17,000 miles per hour, and built a 1,500-piece constellation of internet-beaming satellites it’s figured out how to land and reuse much of its hardware after flight and it’s won massive NASA and US military contracts. If there is a race underway, space fans are usually the first to declare SpaceX the frontrunner. SpaceX, Blue Origin and Virgin have also all benefited greatly through partnerships with NASA and the US military, and all three continue to compete - and occasionally partner with - legacy aerospace companies, such as Boeing and Northrop Grumman and United Launch Alliance. There are hundreds of space startups across the United States and the world focused on everything from satellite tech to orbiting hotels. And they all founded their companies within a few years of each other, becoming the most recognizable faces in the 21st-century space race, in which titans of private industry are racing each other to space, rather than Western governments racing Eastern governments like in the space race of last century.īut they certainly are not the only players in the game, and they may not be the only space barons for very long. ![]() The press has billed Bezos, Branson and Musk as the three so-called space barons because of their similarities: All made their fortunes in other industries before setting their sites on extraterrestrial ventures - Musk in online payments and electric cars, Bezos with Amazon, and Branson with his empire of Virgin-branded businesses. But never has the Branson-Musk-Bezos dynamic appeared more competitive than when Branson announced earlier this month that he would fire himself into outer space on a suborbital joy ride just days before Bezos will clamber into his own rocket.īranson’s flight took off without a hitch on Sunday, while Bezos plans to take off July 20.īut which billionaire is truly winning this so-called space race? It all depends on how you look at it. The space companies founded by the three billionaires all have slightly different goals and varying visions of how to achieve them. And all three men have decided to put vast sums of their wealth into chasing their space travel dreams, creating a modern space race in which ultra-rich men - rather than countries - shoot for the stars. The company said it believes "New Shepard is the safest space vehicle ever designed or built.Jeff Bezos, Elon Musk and Richard Branson have a combined net worth of $400 billion, roughly the size of the GDP of the entire nation of Ireland. "Some of us felt that with the resources and staff available, leadership's race to launch at such a breakneck speed was seriously compromising flight safety," they said.īlue Origin said in a statement that it has no tolerance for any kind of harassment or discrimination and that it stands by its safety record. ![]() The group said that last year company leaders seemed impatient with New Shepard rocket's schedule of a few flights per year, instead wanting more than 40. Bezos held fast to it, even as Virgin Galactic's Richard Branson pushed up his own flight from New Mexico and beat him to space by nine days. There were also safety concerns, with the group stating that Blue Origin seemed more focused on beating billionaires Richard Branson and Elon Musk to space rather than tackling safety issues that would have slowed down the schedule.īezos blasted into space on July 21 on the 52nd anniversary of the Apollo 11 moon landing, a date he selected for its historical significance. The employees, led by former head of Blue Origin employee communications Alexandra Abrams, state that "numerous senior leaders have been known to be consistently inappropriate with women." They also claim that many company leaders were "unapproachable" and showed clear bias against women. The workers claim in an essay that there's sexism at the Kent, Washington, company. A group of more than 20 current and former employees are accusing Jeff Bezos' Blue Origin rocket ship company of being a toxic work environment and not adhering to proper safety protocols.
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