According to The Wall Street Journal, Elon Musk will launch into space aboard Virgin Galactic's VSS Unity. The SpaceX boss is said to have already made a deposit of US$10,000.
Richard Branson and his crew successfully soared into space aboard the VSS Unity this Sunday, marking the company's first official (non-testing) manned flight. . During this flight, Branson and three other Virgin Galactic employees briefly floated in the cabin of the craft in microgravity over 88 km before returning to Earth a few minutes later.
On the ground, more than 500 people were able to watch the event from Spaceport America in New Mexico, including Elon Musk. And obviously, he will be tempted. According to the Wall Street Journal quoting a spokesperson for Virgin Galactic, the boss of SpaceX and Tesla would have indeed deposited a deposit of 10,000 US dollars to reserve a seat on a future suborbital flight of the company.
Over 600 reservations future space tourists would have already been registered, with each ticket costing around $250,000 each. It's unclear, however, where Musk is in the queue.
The purchase of this ticket is not trivial. On the one hand, he once again shows his friendship and confidence in Branson. "Thank you for being so supportive and being such a good friend, Elon “, he tweeted before the flight. "maybe I'll travel on one of his ships one day “, he also pointed out to the Sunday Times.
But above all, this agreement could also be considered as a real snub to Blue Origin , founded by Jeff Bezos. The company presents itself as the main competitor of Branson in the field of space tourism and the main competitor of SpaceX in the field of lunar exploration.
As a reminder, Jeff Bezos himself will take part in the first crewed space flight of his New Shepard launcher on July 20 , on the 52nd anniversary of the Apollo 11 moon landing. His brother Mark, pioneering aviator Wally Funk and the anonymous winner of a $28 million auction will also fly with Bezos.
Given the long-standing rivalry between Musk and Bezos, it would be very surprising, on the other hand, to see the boss of SpaceX climb one day in the New Shepard.
