Published: 02:06 PM, 14 July 2018
Race is on for space tourism
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 - with both companies using radically different technology.
Neither Virgin nor Blue Origin's passengers will find themselves orbiting the Earth: instead, their weightless experience will last just minutes.
It's an offering far different from the first space tourists, who paid tens of millions of dollars to travel to the International Space Station in the 2000s.
