" The two companies leading the pack in the pursuit of space tourism say they are just months away from their first out-of-this-world passenger flights — though neither has set a firm date.
Virgin Galactic, founded by British billionaire Richard Branson, and Blue Origin, by Amazon creator Jeff Bezos, are racing to be the first to finish their tests, using radically different technology.
Their passengers will not orbit the Earth, and the weightless experience will last just minutes. This is far different from the experience of the first-ever space tourists, who paid tens of millions of dollars to travel to the International Space Station in the 2000s.
Having paid for a much cheaper ticket — costing $250,000 with Virgin, and $200,000 to $300,000 for Blue Origin, according to a Reuters report — the new round of space tourists will be propelled above the atmosphere before coming back down to Earth. By comparison, the ISS is in orbit 250 miles (400 kilometers) from our planet.
The goal is to approach or pass through the imaginary line marking where space begins — either the Karman line, at 100 kilometers (62 miles), or the 50-mile (80-km) boundary recognized by the U.S. Air Force.
At this altitude, the sky looks dark and the curvature of the Earth can be seen clearly.
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