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The battle for which a space company backed by billionaires can fly higher is on.
As suborbital spaceflight company Virgin Galactic counts down to the launch of billionaire founder Richard Branson on Sunday, July 11, its biggest competitor Blue Origin, which will launch its own founder and billionaire Jeff Bezos on July 20, is stepping up its commercialization opposition. .
Blue Origin announced its launch date in May and auctioned off a ride to space from West Texas with Bezos for $ 28 million last month. On July 1, Virgin Galactic announced its own launch of Branson, three teammates and two pilots. Their takeoff from the skies over New Mexico will be 9 full days ahead of Blue Origin.
So it’s no surprise that Blue Origin is a little upset at being beaten.
Related: How to watch Virgin Galactic launch Richard Branson into space
After: How Virgin Galactic’s SpaceShipTwo Works (Infographic)
On Twitter today (July 9), Blue Origin released an infographic featuring snapshots from the competition, focusing on issues such as the higher environmental impact of Virgin Galactic’s Unity space plane, its smaller windows and the ‘absence of an evacuation system. Blue Origin’s New Shepard suborbital capsule has huge windows, creates a water vapor escape and has an exhaust system. (This was despite the fact that Branson denied on the Today Show just days ago that he was playing with Bezos: “I know no one will believe me when I say it, but honestly there is not [competition],” he said.)
And then there’s how much Virgin Galactic and Blue Origin can fly.
From the start, New Shepard was designed to fly over the Kármán Line, so none of our astronauts have an asterisk next to their name. For 96% of the world’s population, space begins 100 km from the internationally recognized Kármán Line. pic.twitter.com/QRoufBIrUJJuly 9, 2021
However, the main bone of contention for Blue Origin appears to be the Kármán Line, the internationally recognized limit of space 100 kilometers above sea level.
All Virgin Galactic spaceflights to date have taken place below this line, but well above another 50-mile (80 km) altitude limit recognized by the Federal Aviation Administration ( FAA), NASA and the United States Army.
“Only 4% of the world recognizes a lower limit of 80 km or 50 miles as the start of space,” Blue Origin added in a Twitter comment with the infographic. “New Shepard flies over both borders. One of the many advantages of flying with Blue Origin.”
Related: Richard Branson says he’s not running Jeff Bezos in space with Virgin Galactic launch
Virgin Galactic’s SpaceShipTwo is designed to launch two pilots and up to six passengers into suborbital space from a high altitude. It is transported to the launch position by a carrier aircraft called VMS Eve. After reaching fall altitude, a SpaceShipTwo is released, launches into space, and returns to its home port at Spaceport America outside of Las Cruces, New Mexico.
Blue Origin’s New Shepard is launched on a booster rocket of the same name, which then lands vertically after separating from the crew capsule. The capsule then flies into space and returns to Earth under a parachute. Blue Origin flights take off from the company’s West Texas launch site near Van Horn, TX.
This is not the first time that Blue Origin has made such comments on the Kármán line. “We’ve always had a mission to fly over the Kármán Line, because we didn’t want there to be asterisks next to your name to tell if you’re an astronaut or not,” Bezos said in 2019 . “This is something they [Virgin Galactic] are going to have to cope, in my opinion. “
Branson addressed the Kármán Line dispute on Wednesday, July 7, in an interview with National Public Radio, repeating that the FAA and NASA recognize the 50-mile limit as a definition of astronaut status.
“The real difference in experience will be almost nonexistent,” Branson told NPR, noting that passengers will enjoy almost equal time in zero gravity on Unity and New Shepard. (Unity should have four minutes of weightlessness at the top of its suborbital curve, while New Shepard should be around three minutes, according to Business Insider.)
While both airlines hope to open up to paying passengers soon, you’ll need big bucks no matter which spaceflight option you choose. Virgin Galactic seats sell for $ 250,000 each; everyone except Branson on his flight will be Virgin Galactic employees.
New Shepard has yet to release seating pricing, but a yet-named auction winner paid the $ 28 million for the privilege of flying alongside Bezos, his brother Mark, and the Mercury aviator. 13 Wally Funk, whose latter apparently had the opportunity in recognition of the 82-year-old’s long-standing service to aviation and space research.
Follow Elizabeth Howell on Twitter @howellspace. Follow us on Twitter @Spacedotcom and on Facebook.
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