Its a big moment for the private space industry.
But the question comes to mind: who has the smarter plan?
After 15 successful test flights, this will be the first crewed flight for Blue Origins New Shepard spaceship.
Two more seats will be taken up by Bezos and his brother Mark.
A fourth seat will go to Wally Funk.
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Branson will travel as part of a six person crew on Virgin Galactic space-plane VSS Unity.
Tailored plans
Both flights will be short, and based on different definitions of where space begins.
Bezoss Blue Origin has chosen to define this as the internationally recognizedKarman line at 100 kilometers altitude.
The peak of the New Shepards trajectory will be just past this limit.
Meanwhile, Virgin Galactic has chosen the US Air Forces definition of space at about80kmaltitude.
Their SpaceShipTwo generally reaches a peak altitude of around 90km during flight.
With its almost vertical trajectory, this is enough altitude and momentum to reach space.
New Shepard Booster landing after an uncrewed test flight.
Parachutes will help with deceleration.
At this point it will launch itself into space, starting above the thick lower atmosphere.
Similar to the New Shepard, passengers will experience several minutes of weightlessness before re-entering the atmosphere.
Virgin Galactics planned flight path based on earlier test flights.
Virgin Galactic
A rocket versus a spaceplane
There are several differences and similarities in the companies approaches.
Both will have short flights, allowing them to make use of suborbital launch trajectories.
This means they will achieve the right altitude to reach space, but wont go into orbit.
This approach requires much less fuel than an orbital flight.
Also, both aim to re-use their spaceships to lower the costs of operation over time.
Beyond that, however, their approaches are quite different.
New Shepard, which has performed 15 successful uncrewed test flights, is overall a simple spacecraft.
This will likely make it cheaper and safer in the long run.
In contrast, Virgin Galactics SpaceShipTwo is much more advanced.
This complicated procedure has already come unstuck multiple times.
A recent SpaceShipTwo flight was aborted due to a computer malfunction after its rocket motor ignited.
It landed safely butdidnt reach space.
VSS Unity in space during a test flight, with its wings stowed away in preparation for feathered re-entry.
This specific model has completed 21 successful test flights, with three reaching space.
Its expected Blue Origins New Shepard will bepriced similarly.
The simplicity of Blue Origins system means it will probably be better equipped to reduce costs over time.
But simplicity may also be its downfall.
Meanwhile, SpaceShipTwo is a more complex spacecraft with pilots.
This could prove more attractive to customers.
