{"id":17512,"date":"2021-07-27T18:18:24","date_gmt":"2021-07-27T10:18:24","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wp-productionenv-bjg9h2g2bgg5b8aa.southeastasia-01.azurewebsites.net\/news\/bezos-vs-branson-vs-musk-a-reality-check-on-the-billionaire-space-race-and-space-station-sci-fi\/"},"modified":"2021-07-27T18:18:24","modified_gmt":"2021-07-27T10:18:24","slug":"bezos-vs-branson-vs-musk-a-reality-check-on-the-billionaire-space-race-and-space-station-sci-fi","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/news\/bezos-vs-branson-vs-musk-a-reality-check-on-the-billionaire-space-race-and-space-station-sci-fi\/","title":{"rendered":"Bezos vs. Branson vs. Musk: A reality check on the billionaire space race \u2014 and space station sci-fi"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Inside
Blue Origin suborbital spaceflier Mark Bezos throws a ball to Oliver Daemen in zero-G while Wally Funk floats above in the New Shepard capsule. (Blue Origin Photo)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The state of commercial space travel is changing so quickly that even science-fiction authors are struggling to keep up.<\/p>\n

That\u2019s what Time magazine\u2019s editor at large, Jeffrey Kluger, found out when he was finishing up his newly published novel, \u201cHoldout,\u201d half of which is set on the International Space Station.<\/p>\n

Kluger\u2019s plot depends on the Russians being the only ones capable of bringing an astronaut back from the space station \u2014 but that no longer holds true, now that SpaceX is flying crews to and from orbit.<\/p>\n

\u201cAt the very end of the editing process, SpaceX started to fly \u2026 so I had to quickly account for that,\u201d he explains in the latest episode of the Fiction Science podcast, which focuses on the intersection of science and technology with fiction and popular culture.<\/p>\n

Kluger filled that plot hole by writing in a quick reference to a couple of fictional companies \u2014 CelestiX and Arcadia \u2014 and saying they were both grounded, due to a launch-pad accident and a labor strike.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s been even harder to keep up in the past few weeks, due to the high-profile suborbital spaceflights that have been taken by billionaires Jeff Bezos and Richard Branson. Each of them flew aboard their own company\u2019s rocket ship: Blue Origin\u2019s New Shepard for Bezos, and Virgin Galactic\u2019s SpaceShipTwo rocket plane for Branson. Kluger told me those billionaire space trips are at the same time less significant and more significant than they might seem at first glance.<\/p>\n

https:\/\/radiopublic.com\/fiction-science-GAxyzK\/s1!fb788<\/p>\n

They\u2019re less significant because \u201cthis is a very elite group of very wealthy and powerful people who are in a unique position to build and fly their own spacecraft,\u201d Kluger said.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat is hardly something that the great mass of the rest of us are in a position to do,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n

But Kluger said these first flights also hint at the \u201cenormous growth potential\u201d for private-sector spaceflight.<\/p>\n

\u201cOne of the points we like to make when we talk about this at Time is that Charles Lindbergh flew across the ocean by himself in 1927,\u201d he said. \u201cAnd just 12 years later, we had Pan Am trans-Atlantic service. \u2026 In very short order, we have the democratization of air travel.\u201d<\/p>\n

Which billionaire will win the lion\u2019s share of the suborbital space travel market? If it\u2019s a two-billionaire race, Kluger would put his money on Blue Origin, because its vertical launch-and-landing system is less complicated than Virgin Galactic\u2019s air-launch system. But Kluger noted that rival billionaire Elon Musk\u2019s SpaceX has far outpaced both Blue Origin and Virgin Galactic.<\/p>\n

\"Jeffrey
Jeffrey Kluger (Via Twitter)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

\u201cThey\u2019ve stayed suborbital,\u201d he said. \u201cAnd until I see them going orbital and achieving some of the kinds of things that SpaceX is achieving, I think they are pretty much eating SpaceX\u2019s dust at the moment \u2014 and SpaceX is, in turn, eating their lunch.\u201d<\/p>\n

SpaceX is due to mark a milestone of its own in the months ahead when it launches an \u201call-civilian\u201d orbital mission. The Inspiration4 mission, funded by billionaire Jared Isaacman as a charity project for St. Jude Children\u2019s Research Hospital, is shaping up as the first crewed orbital mission that doesn\u2019t have a government employee on board. Isaacman himself, who\u2019s the CEO of Shift4 Payments as well as a trained jet pilot, will be the mission commander.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe don\u2019t know exactly what all of the seats cost, but going by what the market bears for orbital seats, probably a good guesswork figure is $50 million a seat,\u201d Kluger said. \u201cSo to put four people aboard the Inspiration4 mission is $200 million, I would guess.\u201d<\/p>\n

The four-person crew aims to conduct zero-G science experiments and teach lessons from orbit over the course of three days. \u201cSo the mission as a whole is longer, more ambitious and more selfless than the other two missions,\u201d Kluger said.<\/p>\n

Inspiration4 won\u2019t be heading for the space station. But yet another commercial space mission, organized by Axiom Space with SpaceX in charge of the launch, will carry three customers and an Axiom mission commander to the 20-year-old orbital outpost early next year. Still more customers \u2014 including Tom Cruise and the winner of a reality-TV show \u2014 are expected to visit the station in the years ahead.<\/p>\n

\u201cLife aboard the space station is going to become a little bit more crowded, and a little bit more versatile,\u201d Kluger said.<\/p>\n

Let\u2019s just hope those visitors don\u2019t face the kinds of troubles that the protagonist of Kluger\u2019s novel has to deal with. The central character in \u201cHoldout,\u201d an astronaut named Walli Beckwith, encounters perils including an in-space collision, an ammonia leak and a balky Soyuz capsule \u2014 all based on true-to-life space station incidents.<\/p>\n

\"Holdout
Jeffrey Kluger\u2019s \u201cHoldout\u201d blends action in space and in the Amazon. (Dutton Books)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Kluger said he was careful to stay within the bounds of the space station\u2019s technological capabilities and potential shortcomings as he was writing \u201cHoldout.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cSome of the politics in Washington, I may have taken a few liberties with that \u2026 but when it came to the science, I tried to keep it as close to the actual physics of spaceflight as possible,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

In addition to the space drama, the ingredients in Kluger\u2019s book include international political intrigue as well as environmental threats and a refugee crisis in the Amazon. (No, Jeff Bezos, not your<\/em> Amazon.) It all sounds like the perfect recipe for a movie script.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think almost hourly of this book being on screen,\u201d Kluger admitted. \u201cI\u2019m not saying I wrote it more as a screenplay than as a book, but I did write it with the idea of a movie in mind. My agent in Hollywood at William Morris is working on getting it out there.\u201d<\/p>\n

Kluger already has someone in mind to play Walli Beckwith: Elisabeth Moss, who has starred in \u201cMad Men\u201d and \u201cThe Handmaid\u2019s Tale.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI think she\u2019s got the grit. I think she\u2019s got the toughness. I think she\u2019s got the emotional availability and accessibility,\u201d Kluger said. \u201cI just think she would be the perfect person for Walli Beckwith.\u201d<\/p>\n

Elisabeth Moss hasn\u2019t yet shown up alongside Tom Hanks and Lady Gaga on the list of prospective suborbital spacefliers. But in light of Kluger\u2019s interest, maybe she should think about it.<\/p>\n

This report was originally published on Alan Boyle\u2019s Cosmic Log. Check out the original posting for bonus links to Kluger\u2019s favorite space TV show, the book that\u2019s on the top of his reading list and other recommendations from the Cosmic Log Used Book Club.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Blue Origin suborbital spaceflier Mark Bezos throws a ball to Oliver Daemen in zero-G while Wally Funk floats above in the New Shepard capsule. (Blue Origin Photo) The state of commercial space travel is changing so quickly that even science-fiction authors are struggling to keep up. That\u2019s what Time magazine\u2019s editor at large, Jeffrey Kluger, found […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"inline_featured_image":false,"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[509,4418,717,4482,493,316,4402,492],"class_list":["post-17512","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news","tag-blue-origin","tag-books","tag-international-space-station","tag-science-fiction","tag-space-tourism","tag-spacex","tag-suborbital-spaceflight","tag-virgin-galactic"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17512"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=17512"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17512\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=17512"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=17512"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=17512"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}