Bezos vs. Musk for Commercial Space Travel Supremacy
Amazon (AMZN) CEO and “purposeful Darwinist” Jeff Bezos was in the headlines yesterday. Bezos’ spaceflight company, Blue Origin, launched its flagship rocket—New Shepard—and brought it back to Earth without issues. The vessel reached an altitude of a little over 100 thousand kilometers before returning and successfully landing on the ground upright.
This is an important step in the company’s quest to build a reusable spacecraft to eventually carry up to six passengers into space and bring them and the rocket back to Earth safely.
"Now safely tucked away at our launch site in West Texas is the rarest of beasts - a used rocket," Bezos said via a CNN Money article. "Full reuse is a game changer, and we can't wait to fuel up and fly again."
Despite the exciting news for commercial spaceflight, not everyone was thrilled of the success of the New Shepard. Tesla (TSLA) and SpaceX CEO Elon Musk provided some backhanded compliments and “clarifications” on the subject of space travel via Twitter:
Mr. Musk even went out of his way to send a tweet directly to Mr. Bezos:
To be clear, in spite of Mr. Musk’s bitterness, he is correct. There is a difference between space and orbit. Everything beyond the Karman Line – 100 thousand kilometers – is considered “outer space.” Going into low Earth orbit (LEO) – i.e. the International Space Station – involves the use of much more kinetic energy to break the Earth’s gravitational field.
The New Shepard reached outer space, but did not reach the distance and energy requirements to go into LEO.
Being able to have reusable spacecrafts that can achieve a LEO and reenter Earth’s atmosphere safely is critical to the success of both Blue Origin and SpaceX. Shooting up in a rocket to the Karman Line and land back on Earth may not qualify as “space tourism.” Yes, if you are in a vessel that breaks the 100 thousand kilometer mark, you have technically been in space.
However, you do consider a 2-hour layover in an Italian airport as you visiting or being in the country? Technically yes, but you did not truly experience Italy like you did not truly experience space.
As adventurous and exciting the idea of commercial space travel is, there is much at stake for the all parties involved. Another player in this new industry is Richard Branson – minority owner of Virgin America (VA) and founder of the Virgin Group – had on of his Virgin Galactic spaceships crash during a test flight in October 2014, killing one of the two pilots.
Furthermore, an unmanned SpaceX supply flight to ISS exploded soon after launch in June, and New Shepard had its first successful launch into space in April, but the rocket was not recovered because of a problem with the hydraulic system.
These may very well be isolated incidents, yet billions of dollars are being used to fund these projects that may be unsafe for people. Moreover, if these companies cannot promise more than a few seconds above the Karman Line, is the $250,000 ticket price worth the risk of blowing up or crash landing?
With that being said, the very concept of space tourism is still in its infancy and the New Shepard being able to reach outer space and land safely is an important step to having humanity being able to be one with the cosmos.
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