Thebillionaire space race[2][3][4][5] is therivalry among entrepreneurs who have entered thespace industry from other industries – particularly computing.[6][7] Thisprivate spaceflight race involves sending privately developed rockets and vehicles to various destinations in space, often in response to government programs or to develop thespace tourism sector.[8]
Since 2018, the billionaire space race has primarily been between three billionaires and their respective firms:
Prior to his death in 2018,Paul Allen was also a major player in the billionaire space race through the aerospace division of his firmVulcan and his financing of programs such asScaled Composites Tier One. Allen sought to reduce the cost of launching payloads into orbit.[4][10][5]
Elon Musk's SpaceX was established in 2002, last among the three main rivals. Speaking atCape Canaveral Space Force Station and without reference to private spaceflight, Elon Musk expressed excitement for a new space race in 2018.[12]
Government programs have also fueled the billionaire space race. NASA programs such as theCommercial Crew Program (created in 2010, with grants mostly won by SpaceX and partially by Blue Origin) and theArtemis HLS program (awarded to SpaceX in 2021 and also to Blue Origin in 2023) have pushed the billionaires to compete against each other to be selected for those multi-billion dollar procurement programs. The competition has also resulted in court battles such asBlue Origin v. United States & SpaceX. Those government programs have provided critical funding for the newprivate space industry and its development.[13]
21 June 2004 – Scaled Composites Tier One, funded by Paul Allen, achieves the first entirely privately funded crewed flight to space (suborbital, crossing the 100 kmKármán line) with theSpaceShipOne flight 15P. The program won theAnsari X Prize later that year.
30 May 2020 – SpaceX successfully launches a Falcon 9 rocket carrying theCrew Dragon space capsule during theDemo-2 mission, marking the first privately developed crewed mission to orbit and to visit the International Space Station (ISS).
11 July 2021 – Richard Branson made a successful sub-orbital spaceflight as a member ofVirgin Galactic Unity 22.[14]
20 July 2021 – Jeff Bezos made a successful sub-orbital spaceflight aboardBlue Origin's NS-16, becoming the first billionaire space company founder to cross the Karman Line.[15]
16 September 2021 – SpaceX operates theInspiration4 mission, the first orbital spaceflight with only private citizens aboard.[16]
May 2024 – Boosters (1st stage) of theFalcon 9 family of rockets have been reused over 300 times. Certification is in progress to be able to reuse a single booster 40 times.[18]
September 2024 – SpaceX operates thePolaris Dawn mission, which performs the first privatespacewalk and becomes the furthest crewed mission from Earth sinceApollo 17.[19]
January 2025 – First launch ofNew Glenn, Blue Origin's heavy lift reusable launcher contracted for the U.S. NASAArtemis program,NSSL, and other planetary missions.[20]
SpaceX and Blue Origin have had a history of conflict.[5][7] Blue Origin and SpaceX have had dueling press releases that compete with each other's announcements and events.[23][24]
SpaceX and Blue Origin battled for the right to lease Kennedy Space CenterLC-39A, the rocket launch platform that was used to launch the Apollo Moon missions. SpaceX won the lease in 2013, but Blue Origin filed suit in court against that. It is currently in the hands of SpaceX, while Blue Origin rentedSLC-36 instead.[7]
SpaceX filed suit against Blue Origin to invalidate their patent on landing rockets aboard ships at sea. They won their court fight in 2014. SpaceX had been attempting to land rockets at sea since 2014, finally succeeding in 2016, before Blue Origin first built a sea-going platform for landing rockets.[7]
SpaceX and Blue Origin got into a Twitter battle about the meaning of a used rocket, landed rocket, and spacerocket, at the end of 2015, whenNew Shepard successfully landed, after a suborbital jaunt into space. SpaceX had previously launched and landed itsGrasshopper rocket multiple times without reaching space. Then SpaceX landed aFalcon 9 first stage, which had been used to launch a satellite into orbit, prompting more Twitter battles at the start of 2016, such as Bezos tweeting "welcome to the club".[7][25]
In late 2016, Blue Origin announced theNew Glenn, directly competing against SpaceX'sFalcon Heavy, with a larger rocket but lower payload.[26]
In April 2021, SpaceX beat Blue Origin to a $2.9 billion contract tobuild the lunar lander forNASA'sArtemis program.[28] In August 2021, Blue Origin subsequentlybegan a legal case against NASA and SpaceX in theCourt of Federal Claims, which was dismissed in November of the same year.[29] About two years later in May 2023,NASA awarded Blue Origin a $3.4 billion contract to develop a competing Moon lander, noting that "adding another human landing system partner to NASA's Artemis program will increase competition, reduce costs to taxpayers, support a regular cadence of lunar landings, further invest in the lunar economy, and help NASA achieve its goals on and around the Moon in preparation for future astronaut missions to Mars."[30][31]
Blue Origin and Virgin Galactic are in the same market,suborbital space tourism, with thespace capsuleNew Shepard and thespaceplaneSpaceShipTwo, respectively.[32][33][3][1] The two systems made their first flights with multiple passengers within 10 days of each other: SpaceShipTwo flew on July 11, 2021, and New Shepard followed on July 20, both carrying their billionaire founders and a few other passengers. As of July 2023, SpaceShipTwo has made three tourism flights with two pilots and four passengers each, while New Shepard has made six flights with six passengers each.
In May 2023, Richard Branson ended Virgin Orbit in bankruptcy, and then in December 2023, he announced that he would not invest more money in Virgin Galactic. Having already put one billion dollars into the project, he said that they should have enough money to continue without more from him.[34]
The Stratolaunch rivalries are no longer part of the billionaire space race, after 2019, having been suspended at the time of Paul Allen's death.[10][35] The Stratolaunch company has since continued operations under new ownership, but does not focus on orbital space launches anymore.
Vulcan Aerospace subsidiaryStratolaunch Systems planned to air-launch satellite launcher rockets, the same profile as planned byVirgin Orbit for itsLauncherOne operations. While LauncherOne was developed and launch aircraft procured (onceWhite Knight Two, now 747Cosmic Girl), theScaled Composites "Roc"Model 351 is still being developed (as of 2022) and the rocket to mate to it (the company has refocused away from orbital spaceflight) has yet to be selected.[36] After the death of Paul Allen in 2018, Stratolaunch was sold, and is no longer a billionaire insurgent venture.[10]
The critical response to space tourism has lambasted billionaire founders (e.g.,Richard Branson andJeff Bezos) and questioned their environmental, financial, and social/ethical practices.[2]
^abGuthrie, Julian (2016).How to Make a Spaceship: A Band of Renegades, an Epic Race, and the Birth of Private Spaceflight. Penguin Press.ISBN978-1-59420-672-6.
Various conventions, treaties, agreements, memorandums, charters or declarations establishing and governing intergovernmental organisations or inter-agency bodies dealing with space affairs
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