A NEW ERA OF SPACE TECHNOLOGY IS HAPPENING IN THE WORLD

2021 is a major turning point for space exploration and tourism when a series of projects backed by top billionaires (Jeff Bezos, Elon Musk and Richard Branson) have launched commercial flights to space and attracted a lot of attention.

A new era of space technology is happening in the world

A new era of space technology is happening in the world / ph: pexels

Last July, billionaire Richard Branson and five other passengers made a 90-minute flight into the Earth's atmosphere. Just 10 days later, Jeff Bezos - founder of Blue Origin, also made the same flight. Blue Origin's rocket carrying Amazon boss and three other passengers flew to the edge of space, surpassing the milestone reached by Richard Branson previously.

In September, Elon Musk's aerospace company SpaceX sent a civilian crew of four people into Earth's orbit for a three-day journey.

Before that, Bill Gates was considered the first billionaire to pursue the satellite dream. In 1994, he and a colleague invested 5 million USD in the company Teledesic to launch 840 satellites into orbit to provide Internet to the world. This company received a total of about 1 billion USD from investors.

Many industry experts say the early success of the projects of Elon Musk, Jeff Bezos and Richard Branson has attracted the attention of private investors. It is reported that investment in space startups nearly doubled between 2018 and 2019. Last year, space companies raised a record $14.5 billion.

Elon Musk and Jeff Bezos are billionaires who run the world's most valuable companies ever. Not only do they take turns holding the position of the richest person on the planet, they also compete with each other in the race to space. Their ambitions include developing space tourism and even developing human settlements on the Moon and Mars.

Elon Musk's SpaceX has ambitions to make a flight to Mars by 2026. To date, the company has launched nearly 70 rockets as well as won many lucrative contracts with NASA, the US Air Force and Argentina's space agency. Japanese billionaire Yusaku Maezawa is SpaceX's first Moon tourist.

Unlike Bill Gates, Elon Musk has come very close to the dream of the global Internet. His company Starlink has launched 1,800 satellites into orbit and has begun testing the technology in 12 countries. It is estimated that Starlink currently has about 100,000 customers. This number is expected to increase to 500,000 this year. According to one forecast, Elon Musk's company can reach $30 billion in revenue per year and have 25 million customers in the near future.

Like its rival SpaceX, Jeff Bezos' Blue Origin aims to reduce the cost of space travel by building reusable rockets. The company has also received several contracts with the US government. In the future, Jeff Bezos wants to establish a partnership with NASA to evaluate the possibility of human settlement on the Moon.

For his part, Richard Branson focuses mainly on developing reusable space planes to organize short trips to take tourists into space. His company Virgin Galactic has started selling tickets for $250,000 and so far, singer Justin Bieber has bought tickets.

The US government also seems to be very interested in strengthening NASA's foothold in the space sector. This year, NASA plans to launch a space station into the Moon's orbit and partner with SpaceX to send an astronaut to the International Space Station (ISS).

The reality, however, is that it's not just America and American billionaires are making their efforts to become the leader in space. Russia and China are also looking to build research stations on or around the Moon.

An expert commented that a new era of space technology is happening in the world. However, it is a fact that not everyone is interested in space travel, simply because they do not have enough money.