{"id":19514,"date":"2015-12-30T23:27:23","date_gmt":"2015-12-30T15:27:23","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wp-productionenv-bjg9h2g2bgg5b8aa.southeastasia-01.azurewebsites.net\/news\/billionaire-space-club-pits-elon-musk-vs-jeff-bezos-vs-richard-branson-vs-paul-allen-and-more\/"},"modified":"2015-12-30T23:27:23","modified_gmt":"2015-12-30T15:27:23","slug":"billionaire-space-club-pits-elon-musk-vs-jeff-bezos-vs-richard-branson-vs-paul-allen-and-more","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/news\/billionaire-space-club-pits-elon-musk-vs-jeff-bezos-vs-richard-branson-vs-paul-allen-and-more\/","title":{"rendered":"Billionaire Space Club pits Elon Musk vs. Jeff Bezos vs. Richard Branson vs. Paul Allen and more"},"content":{"rendered":"<figure id=\"attachment_219792\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-219792\" style=\"width: 630px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><img fetchpriority=\"high\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full-width wp-image-219792\" src=\"https:\/\/cdn.geekwire.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/12\/151229-champagne-630x444.jpg\" alt=\"Blue Origin rocket landing\" width=\"630\" height=\"444\" srcset=\"https:\/\/cdn.geekwire.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/12\/151229-champagne-630x444.jpg 630w, https:\/\/cdn.geekwire.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/12\/151229-champagne-768x541.jpg 768w, https:\/\/cdn.geekwire.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/12\/151229-champagne-1240x873.jpg 1240w, https:\/\/cdn.geekwire.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/12\/151229-champagne.jpg 1385w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 630px) 100vw, 630px\"><figcaption data-nosnippet=\"\" id=\"caption-attachment-219792\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Amazon founder Jeff Bezos (in hat and sunglasses) pops open a bottle of champagne after Blue Origin\u2019s New Shepard rocket landing in November. (Credit: Blue Origin)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>When Jeff Bezos welcomed SpaceX to the rocket landing \u201cclub\u201d last week, it set off a round of twittering over whether Bezos\u2019 Blue Origin space venture and fellow billionaire Elon Musk\u2019s SpaceX were really in the same league. What kind of club was Bezos talking about?<\/p>\n<p>https:\/\/twitter.com\/LeeGrins\/status\/679118522975326208<\/p>\n<p><iframe id=\"twitter-widget-0\" scrolling=\"no\" frameborder=\"0\" allowtransparency=\"true\" allowfullscreen=\"true\" class=\"\" style=\"position: absolute; visibility: hidden; width: 0px; height: 0px; display: block; flex-grow: 1;\" title=\"X Post\" src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/embed\/Tweet.html?creatorScreenName=b0yle&amp;dnt=false&amp;embedId=twitter-widget-0&amp;features=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%3D%3D&amp;frame=false&amp;hideCard=false&amp;hideThread=true&amp;id=679119704951230465&amp;lang=en&amp;origin=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.geekwire.com%2F2015%2Fbillionaire-space-club-pits-spacex-vs-blue-origin-vs-virgin-galactic%2F&amp;sessionId=f47d31912131e24a0b80560752e669359ff10db1&amp;siteScreenName=geekwire&amp;theme=light&amp;widgetsVersion=6a3ad42b224df%3A1778106238597&amp;width=550px\" data-tweet-id=\"679119704951230465\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" lang=\"en\" data-conversation=\"none\" data-twitter-extracted-i1782805139045557287=\"true\">\n<p dir=\"ltr\" lang=\"en\">@JeffBezos @SpaceX haha that\u2019s funny you actually think you\u2019re on the same level as @elonmusk<\/p>\n<p>\u2014 Mike Sudyk (@sudyk) December 22, 2015<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p><script src=\"\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" async=\"\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n<p>The club that Bezos had in mind was precisely defined: It consists of ventures that can launch a rocket booster from the ground into space, and then bring that booster back intact for a vertical landing.<\/p>\n<p>Blue Origin was the first to become a member,&nbsp;during a November test flight of its suborbital New Shepard spaceship in Texas. SpaceX followed in December, with the successful landing of its Falcon 9\u2019s first-stage booster after the launch of 11 Orbcomm telecommunication satellites.<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\" size-full wp-image-188079 alignleft\" src=\"https:\/\/cdn.geekwire.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/07\/pluto1.png\" alt=\"pluto\" width=\"250\" height=\"189\" srcset=\"https:\/\/cdn.geekwire.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/07\/pluto1.png 250w, https:\/\/cdn.geekwire.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/07\/pluto1-200x151.png 200w, https:\/\/cdn.geekwire.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/07\/pluto1-132x100.png 132w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 250px) 100vw, 250px\"><br \/>\n<strong>Science journalist Alan Boyle<\/strong>&nbsp;is the author of &#8220;The Case for Pluto: How a Little Planet Made A Big Difference.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>Lots of folks have&nbsp;pointed&nbsp;out how much more difficult it is to bring back a booster after an orbital launch, as opposed to New Shepard\u2019s&nbsp;up-and-down suborbital trip. The Falcon 9 stage is more than 10 times as powerful and rose twice as high as New Shepard. The implications are greater, as well: Musk says&nbsp;total rocket reusability could lower&nbsp;the cost of delivering satellites and other payloads to orbit by a factor of 100,&nbsp;and eventually open the way for building a city on Mars.<\/p>\n<p>Based on Bezos\u2019 narrow definition of the club, Blue Origin may have been the first member, but&nbsp;this month SpaceX took the lead. (By the way, both companies have yet to show&nbsp;that the rockets they recovered are truly reusable.)<\/p>\n<p>Let\u2019s say you&nbsp;widen the definition even slightly, to include&nbsp;rocket ships&nbsp;that breached the 100-kilometer boundary of outer space (a.k.a. the Karman Line) and came back for a horizontal runway landing. Then you could arguably add&nbsp;the U.S. Air Force\u2019s X-15, NASA\u2019s space shuttles and the privately built, prize-winning SpaceShipOne rocket plane.<\/p>\n<p>So which is the club that counts? When it comes to boosting spaceflight, you could say there\u2019s a \u201cBillionaire Space&nbsp;Club\u201d whose members are vying for attention (as well as aerospace engineers and launch contracts). Their ambitions, and their target markets, overlap like a Venn diagram:<\/p>\n<figure id=\"attachment_131188\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-131188\" style=\"width: 200px\" class=\"wp-caption alignright\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-131188\" src=\"https:\/\/cdn.geekwire.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/09\/elonmusk-150x150.jpeg\" alt=\"Elon Musk\" width=\"200\" height=\"200\" srcset=\"https:\/\/cdn.geekwire.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/09\/elonmusk-150x150.jpeg 150w, https:\/\/cdn.geekwire.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/09\/elonmusk-300x300.jpeg 300w, https:\/\/cdn.geekwire.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/09\/elonmusk-100x100.jpeg 100w, https:\/\/cdn.geekwire.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/09\/elonmusk-620x620.jpeg 620w, https:\/\/cdn.geekwire.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/09\/elonmusk-200x200.jpeg 200w, https:\/\/cdn.geekwire.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/09\/elonmusk.jpeg 1252w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 200px) 100vw, 200px\"><figcaption data-nosnippet=\"\" id=\"caption-attachment-131188\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Elon Musk<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p><strong>Elon Musk<\/strong> is going after orbital spaceflight and beyond, with the aim of making humanity a multiplanet species. But he has other tech-frontier interests, including electric storage and transportation (Tesla Motors), solar energy production (Solar City), high-speed transit (Hyperloop) and artificial intelligence (OpenAI).<\/p>\n<p>SpaceX started out with satellite launches, then gained multibillion-dollar contracts to deliver cargo to the International Space Station. The next steps include flying heavyweight national security payloads, ferrying astronauts into orbit and laying the groundwork for missions to Mars.<\/p>\n<figure id=\"attachment_219799\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-219799\" style=\"width: 200px\" class=\"wp-caption alignright\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-219799\" src=\"https:\/\/cdn.geekwire.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/12\/151229-bezos-150x150.jpg\" alt=\"151229-bezos\" width=\"200\" height=\"197\" srcset=\"https:\/\/cdn.geekwire.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/12\/151229-bezos-300x296.jpg 300w, https:\/\/cdn.geekwire.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/12\/151229-bezos-100x100.jpg 100w, https:\/\/cdn.geekwire.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/12\/151229-bezos-630x622.jpg 630w, https:\/\/cdn.geekwire.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/12\/151229-bezos-200x197.jpg 200w, https:\/\/cdn.geekwire.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/12\/151229-bezos.jpg 1792w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 200px) 100vw, 200px\"><figcaption data-nosnippet=\"\" id=\"caption-attachment-219799\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Jeff Bezos<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p><strong>Jeff Bezos<\/strong> is best-known for founding America\u2019s biggest online retailer, Seattle-based Amazon, but he founded Blue Origin to follow through on a childhood dream: making spaceflight affordable in order&nbsp;\u201cto seed an enduring human presence in space.\u201d In his book about&nbsp;Bezos and Amazon, \u201cThe Everything Store,\u201d Brad Stone quotes a close friend as saying&nbsp;\u201cthe reason he\u2019s earning so much money is to get to outer space.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>That means Blue Origin isn\u2019t just a hobby: New Shepard, which is designed to carry tourists as well as researchers and their scientific payloads on short suborbital trips, is merely the start. Blue Origin is also working on rocket engines (the BE-4) and orbital launch systems (to be built in Florida) that would compete with SpaceX hardware. Speaking of money, Bezos has more of it than Musk: $46.7 billion vs. $13 billion.<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignright wp-image-219793\" src=\"https:\/\/cdn.geekwire.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/12\/151229-branson-150x150.jpg\" alt=\"Richard Branson\" width=\"200\" height=\"182\" srcset=\"https:\/\/cdn.geekwire.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/12\/151229-branson-300x274.jpg 300w, https:\/\/cdn.geekwire.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/12\/151229-branson-630x575.jpg 630w, https:\/\/cdn.geekwire.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/12\/151229-branson-200x182.jpg 200w, https:\/\/cdn.geekwire.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/12\/151229-branson.jpg 1274w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 200px) 100vw, 200px\"><\/p>\n<p><strong>Richard Branson<\/strong>, the founder of myriad Virgin ventures, is pursuing his own dreams of spaceflight through Virgin Galactic. The billionaire (net worth: $5.1 billion)&nbsp;bought the rights to the technology behind SpaceShipOne and ramped it up for SpaceShipTwo. Last year, Virgin Galactic suffered a catastrophic setback when the first SpaceShipTwo broke up during a test flight, killing the co-pilot&nbsp;and injuring the pilot. A second SpaceShipTwo is being prepared for testing, however, and 700 customers are waiting to take a ride.<\/p>\n<p>Bezos\u2019 suborbital success could be seen as more of a challenge to Branson than to Musk, as Parabolic Arc\u2019s Doug Messier pointed out last week. Like Virgin Galactic, Blue Origin is going after the tourist market as well as&nbsp;research flights, which have been called the \u201ckiller app\u201d for suborbital space ventures. Branson also has bigger ambitions: orbital launches with LauncherOne, and point-to-point travel with a future SpaceShipThree.<\/p>\n<figure id=\"attachment_219794\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-219794\" style=\"width: 200px\" class=\"wp-caption alignright\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-219794\" src=\"https:\/\/cdn.geekwire.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/12\/151229-allen-150x150.jpg\" alt=\"Paul Allen\" width=\"200\" height=\"189\" srcset=\"https:\/\/cdn.geekwire.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/12\/151229-allen-300x284.jpg 300w, https:\/\/cdn.geekwire.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/12\/151229-allen-200x189.jpg 200w, https:\/\/cdn.geekwire.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/12\/151229-allen.jpg 364w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 200px) 100vw, 200px\"><figcaption data-nosnippet=\"\" id=\"caption-attachment-219794\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Paul Allen<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p><strong>Paul Allen<\/strong>&nbsp;($17.4 billion) is building upon his legacy as the co-founder of Microsoft through a constellation of high-tech, philanthropic and sports ventures. Space travel is one of his biggest passions: He financed the SpaceShipOne effort, and in his autobiography he said his proudest day came when SpaceShipOne won the $10 million Ansari X Prize in 2004. (To be fair, \u201cIdea Man\u201d was written before Allen\u2019s Seahawks won the Super Bowl.)<\/p>\n<p>Now Allen\u2019s Vulcan Aerospace is building the world\u2019s biggest airplane for use as a platform for orbital rocket launches. It\u2019s not yet clear who will be Vulcan\u2019s rocket partner \u2013 but&nbsp;you\u2019d think&nbsp;Virgin Galactic&nbsp;would at least be in the running, based on the last line in \u201cIdea Man\u201d: \u201cSomeone, after all, is going to have to get behind SpaceShipThree.\u201d<\/p>\n<figure id=\"attachment_219795\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-219795\" style=\"width: 200px\" class=\"wp-caption alignright\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-219795\" src=\"https:\/\/cdn.geekwire.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/12\/151229-bigelow_edited-150x150.jpg\" alt=\"Robert Bigelow\" width=\"200\" height=\"197\" srcset=\"https:\/\/cdn.geekwire.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/12\/151229-bigelow_edited-300x295.jpg 300w, https:\/\/cdn.geekwire.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/12\/151229-bigelow_edited-100x100.jpg 100w, https:\/\/cdn.geekwire.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/12\/151229-bigelow_edited-200x197.jpg 200w, https:\/\/cdn.geekwire.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/12\/151229-bigelow_edited.jpg 478w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 200px) 100vw, 200px\"><figcaption data-nosnippet=\"\" id=\"caption-attachment-219795\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Robert Bigelow<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>Those are the highest-profile billionaires, but there are others. Intentional Software\u2019s Charles Simonyi and Alphabet\u2019s Larry Page are among the backers of Planetary Resources, the Redmond-based asteroid mining company. (Branson\u2019s a backer, too.) Meanwhile, budget-hotel magnate Robert Bigelow is working on space habitats at Bigelow Aerospace. Bigelow\u2019s BEAM prototype module is due to be sent up to the space station on a SpaceX Dragon freighter in February.<\/p>\n<p>If you look beyond the billionaires, there are lots of other ventures in the mix&nbsp;\u2013 ranging from the traditional \u201cFour Amigos\u201d of aerospace (Boeing, Lockheed Martin, Aerojet Rocketdyne and Orbital ATK) to the newer players (such as XCOR Aerospace and Seattle-based Spaceflight,&nbsp;plus Moon Express and a host of other&nbsp;Google Lunar X Prize teams).<\/p>\n<p>SpaceX and Blue Origin may be in the rocket spotlight now, but hold onto your helmets: This space club is just getting the party started.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Amazon founder Jeff Bezos (in hat and sunglasses) pops open a bottle of champagne after Blue Origin\u2019s New Shepard rocket landing in November. (Credit: Blue Origin) When Jeff Bezos welcomed SpaceX to the rocket landing \u201cclub\u201d last week, it set off a round of twittering over whether Bezos\u2019 Blue Origin space venture and fellow billionaire [&hellip;]<\/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":[509,291,1045,1046,2672,1693,316,492,4949],"class_list":["post-19514","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news","tag-blue-origin","tag-commercial-space","tag-elon-musk","tag-jeff-bezos","tag-paul-allen","tag-richard-branson","tag-spacex","tag-virgin-galactic","tag-vulcan-aerospace"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19514"}],"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=19514"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19514\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=19514"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=19514"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=19514"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}