THEBIGPICTURE Space, the new travel spot

Amazon.com founder Jeff Bezos will blast off to the edge of space today on board his rocket Blue Origin, nine days after Virgin Group founder Richard Branson successfully reached it aboard his space plane VSS Unity. Exciting times indeed – but what do these space THE ights really mean for you? It means space tourism is real, these people are working on it and your next travel BIG BOYS destination might be outer space – if you can afford it. AND THEIR Infographics journalist CEL GULAPA takes a look at the visionary billionaires and other TOYS players who want to take you there, the rst paying space tourists and what JEFF BEZOS a Blue Origin ight will be like. BLUE ORIGIN New Shepard Sub-orbital space ight launched from a reusable rocket, named the New Shepard, which takes off and lands vertically. Space tourism plan Blue Origin has run several test ights and is planning to put paying passengers into space soon. However, unlike Virgin Galactic, it has not started taking money for tickets. Its plans involve placing up to six passengers on each ight, with room to perform weightless somersaults. Cost Blue Origin’s ticket price is US$250,000 (S$340,000).

Separation After the capsule separates, 3 the rocket will come back and self-land, ready to be reused. Ascent The booster engine is cut off and the vehicle 2 glides into space. You will communicate with Mission Control about altitude, speed, time and BLUE G-force as the Earth retreats from view. Sending humans to outer space is super important... ORIGIN’S Blue Origin is the most Zero gravity SPACE TOUR important work I’m doing. You will receive clearance to 4 release your harness. You will marvel at Jeff Bezos is planning to send trips to weightless freedom and lose yourself in the Karman Line – at the very edge of the JEFF BEZOS Earth’s atmosphere – about 100km above FOUNDER AND EXECUTIVE breathtaking views and perfect silence. CHAIRMAN OF AMAZON.COM, ground. Flights aboard Blue Origin’s spacecraft OWNER OF THE WASHINGTON POST Having crossed the Karman Line New Shepard will last around 10 minutes and will AND FOUNDER OF SPACE COMPANY into space, you will have earned include four minutes of zero gravity. This is how the BLUE ORIGIN your astronaut wings. sub-orbital ight will work (see graphic on left). Re-entry The capsule will 5 re-enter Earth’s ELON MUSK RICHARD BRANSON atmosphere to get SPACEX VIRGIN GALACTIC ready to land. VSS Unity A sub-orbital space plane air-launched from Six large windows immerse you in the beneath a carrier plane vastness of space and the much vaunted known as the VMS life-changing views of planet Earth. Eve. It successfully reached the edge Lift off of space on July You will board the capsule in 11 with Richard 1 the high desert plains of Branson on West Texas. After strapping board. into your capsule seat atop an SpaceX Dragon 2 18m-tall rocket, you will listen to The third player in the race to take the countdown and then feel the tourists to space is Elon Musk and his engine rumble under you as it SpaceX. The Tesla electric car climbs through the atmosphere. manufacturer has already launched several cargo payloads and astronauts to the International Space Station (ISS) for the National Aeronautics and Soft landing Space Administration. He plans to I was once a child with a 6 Capsule, aided by send an all-civilian crew into orbit in dream, looking up to the Space tourism plan three parachutes, September. stars. Now I’m an adult in Virgin Galactic is aiming to launch lands gently in We don’t want to be one a spaceship, looking down regular sub-orbital space ights for the desert and is Space tourism plan paying customers. VSS Unity’s readied for the of those single-planet to our beautiful Earth. species. We want to be a The SpaceX Dragon 2 is the rst To the next generation of successful entry to outer space next flight back private spacecraft to take humans to brings the possibility of space to orbit. multi-planet species. dreamers: If we can do this, the ISS. By late 2021, it plans to carry imagine what you can do. tourism closer. However, it has not Six passengers are seated around up to four space tourists in a ight up been without issues, including the a solid-fuel abort motor. to ve days, on an elliptical orbit with crash of the VSS Enterprise space ELON MUSK the apogee three times that of the ISS. plane in 2014. FOUNDER OF SPACEX, ON HIS GOAL SIR RICHARD BRANSON TO ESTABLISH A PERMANENT FOUNDER OF VIRGIN GROUP OF HUMAN PRESENCE ON MARS, Cost COMPANIES, WHILE EXPERIENCING Cost REVEALING A VISION FARTHER THAN SpaceX is already signing up ZERO GRAVITY ON BOARD HIS It costs around US$250,000 to y on THE MERE EDGE OF SPACE passengers for multi-day trips to SPACE PLANE VSS UNITY ON JULY 11 Virgin Galactic and US$1,000 to space at US$35 million a seat. reserve a seat on a future ight.

Sources: REVFINE, TRAVEL AND LEISURE, THE VERGE, BLUE ORIGIN, SPACE.COM, SPACE TOURISM GUIDE, ENGADGET, BUSINESS INSIDER STRAITS TIMES GRAPHICS: CEL GULAPA, MARLONE RUBIO

FIRST SPACE TOURISTS Age at time of ight, place of origin, job, date of ight, space vehicle, cost of ight.

Dennis Tito, 60 Mark Shuttleworth, 28 Greg Olsen, 60 Anousheh Ansari, 40 Charles Simonyi, 58 Richard Garriot, 47 Charles Simonyi, 60 Guy Laliberte, 49 US entrepreneur South African software US bre optics US (Iranian) telecoms CEO US (Hungarian) US video game US (Hungarian) Canadian Cirque du and engineer creator manufacturer September 2006 software architect developer software architect Soleil co-founder April 2001 April 2002 October 2005 Soyuz TMA-9 April 2007 October 2008 March 2009 (second trip) September 2009 Soyuz TMA-32 Soyuz TMA-34 Soyuz TMA-7 Soyuz TMA-10 Soyuz TMA-13 Soyuz TMA-14 Soyuz TMA-16 US$20m US$20m US$20m US$20m US$25m US$25m US$30m US$25m