'We’re at the dawn of a new space age': best-selling author

Kenneth Underwood
·Senior Producer
Updated

Fifty years after Neil Armstrong took one small step for man, billionaires are now trying to take a giant leap for mankind.

“We’re at the dawn of a new space age. What’s driving the new space age is economics. Bezos and Musk know that if you get the price of going to space down 90% or 95%, you’re going to create a space economy,” Charles Fishman, author of “One Giant Leap,” told Yahoo Finance’s On the Move, referring to Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos and SpaceX and Tesla founder Elon Musk.

Right now, getting to space carries a hefty price tag. It costs $62 million to launch SpaceX’s Falcon 9 rocket. That hasn’t stopped countries and government agencies from using the rocket.

NASA continuously use SpaceX to deliver payloads to the International Space Station (ISS), and just this week Canada used the Falcon 9 to send three new satellites into orbit.

UNSPECIFIED - JULY 20: Apollo 11 astronaut during moon walk by Neil Armstrong & Buzz Aldrin standing on moon surface after planting Amer. flag (no caps). (Photo by The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty Images)
UNSPECIFIED - JULY 20: Apollo 11 astronaut during moon walk by Neil Armstrong & Buzz Aldrin standing on moon surface after planting Amer. flag (no caps). (Photo by The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty Images)

The cost for people to travel to space isn’t any cheaper. The ISS just announced plans to open its doors to tourists. And as early as next year, private astronauts can catch a ride on SpaceX’s Crew Dragon capsule rocket and spend up to 30 days on the ISS. But it will cost $52 million.

Bezos’ Blue Origin and billionaire Richard Branson’s Virgin Galactic plan to make it a little bit more affordable for tourists. They plan to charge $200,000 to $300,000 for a ride to space.

The push to the final frontier has not been without set backs though.

In 2014 NASA awarded contracts to both Boeing (BA) and SpaceX to shuttle astronauts to the ISS. Since then Boeing has delayed its Starliner Capsule several times, and SpaceX’s Crew Dragon capsule was destroyed during a test in April.

Despite the delays and substantial costs, Fishman said, “I think 20 years from now we will look back on this moment the way we look back on 1995 in the digital age.”

Kenneth Underwood is a senior producer for Yahoo Finance. Follow him on Twitter @TheKennyU

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