Geonzon 1

Jasmine Geonzon

Mrs. Pettay

English 111, 2B

6 January 2017

A Modern Day Space Race

Following the end of the Space Race between the Soviet Union and the United States,

government spending on space exploration and research has dropped significantly worldwide. In

response to the gradual defunding of space programs across the globe, various private companies

have stepped into their places, hoping to reach same level of achievement as NASA as well as

providing opportunities for the average person to travel to space. At the moment, the

opportunities for the average person to venture into space are extremely limited in both distance

of travel and price. Many companies hope to cut the cost of space travel significantly and even

aim to visit and/or colonize other planets in the Milky Way. Two prominent companies have lead

the way on commercial spaceflight and extraterrestrial tourism: SpaceX and Blue Origin. Major

differences in areas such as company history, plans for commercial tourism, and technology lead

one to believe that Blue Origin is more likely to send consumers before SpaceX in a much more

successful manner.

Because the concept of commercialized space travel is so new, most companies in the

field have only recently sprung up. Despite being such young companies, both SpaceX and Blue

Origin have already accomplished much in their lifetimes. According to science and tech

journalist at Inverse, Neel Patel, Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos founded Blue Origin in 2000 in an
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effort to make spaceflight accessible and affordable for those not in a government positions

(Patel). Since then, Blue Origin has been able to successfully dismount a crew capsule from a

rocket following liftoff, acting as an important step toward Blue Origins goal of carrying

tourists into space as asserted by New York Times space journalist Kenneth Chang (Chang).

Mike Wall is a senior writer for Space.com, a website dedicated to giving comprehensive

coverage on all space-related news. Wall reports that Blue Origin even plans to send humans into

space for testing by the end of 2017 and for commercial flight by the end of 2018 (Wall). SpaceX

was founded in 2002 by Paypal co-founder and Tesla Motors CEO, Elon Musk, according to St.

Johns University professor Joseph Giacalone (Giacalone). According to Jackie Wattles of CNN,

upon start-up, SpaceXs main initial goal was to help humans prepare to colonize the planet of

Mars (Wattles). Nicky Wolf of The Guardian summarized SpaceX CEO Elon Musks September

2016 presentation outlining the companys plans for colonizing the Red Planet within the next 50

to 100 years (Woolf). SpaceX is in the process of launching multiple test rockets, one of which,

the Falcon Nine, exploded during its seventh testing in September of 2016 according to senior

writer for SpaceNews Jeff Foust (Foust). At this pace, SpaceX looks to be taking a more

expedited route of testing for their rockets by doing so in close proximity, while Blue Origin

seems to be going at a more brisk speed, ensuring that their product is the best before release to

consumers.

In terms of availability and time to market, both SpaceX and Blue Origin are quite a ways

away from executing space flights for consumers. Although SpaceX and Blue Origin boast space

flight for the average joe in their overall company goals, neither have been able to start

commercial trips due to delays in technology. SpaceXs tourism ambitions revolve around
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sending humans to Mars, while Blue Origin plans, so far, are confined to the Earth and the area

just outside of its atmosphere. On their website, SpaceX has little to no information regarding

commercial space tourism, however CEO and founder Elon Musk makes his vision for the

company clear through interviews and speaking engagements. In a speech given in at the 67th

International Astronautical Congress, Musk made public his plan to send tourists to Mars within

the next ten years. He hopes for SpaceX to have refined its supply of reusable rockets enough so

that he feels comfortable enough to visit Mars and come back safely. Currently, Musk estimates

trips to initially cost $200,000 USD but hopes to lower prices to $100,000 USD as SpaceXs

commercial flights gain momentum as outlined by media and news company Bloomberg

(Bloomberg). SpaceX must still tweak a few crucial technical advancements . . . to make that

price point possible, including making rockets that are reliably reusable (Wattles). Contrastly,

Blue Origins official website advertises space flight to regular persons, laying out specifics

about space flight in their commercial rockets and even providing a comment box for interested

customers to fill out for a consultation. A timeline for consumers begins with arriving in West

Texas, where the launch site of the rocket is located, two days before launch, completing a

comprehensive training session the day before, final pre-launch checks thirty minutes prior, and

finally lift off into outer space. The official Blue Origin website also boasts 42.7-inch tall

windows in the New Shepards spaceflight capsule and unparalleled experiences of

weightlessness while over 100 km above Earthbeyond the internationally recognized edge of

space(Blue). Unlike their competitor, Blue Origin has not released an estimated price for

customers (Wall). Despite both SpaceX and Blue Origin being at stages of unmanned test

launches, only Blue Origin has announced a complete plan for sending humans to space. This
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may be because of Blue Origins stricter focus on developing space travel for commercial use,

while SpaceX ventures into different realms such as government assistance, creating a

superhighway, and colonization (Giacalone). While neither Blue Origin nor SpaceX has

officially begun commercial space flight, Blue Origin looks to be ahead of its competitor with its

more comprehensive plans to send humans to space.

SpaceX and Blue Origin are currently at the point of their lifetimes in which they are still

correcting and perfecting their technology. Every few months, either company launch test rockets

into the atmosphere to ensure their machinery is functioning properly, adding improvements and

new features with each test. Both companies have made errors in this process, but have been able

to correct them and go on to further progress their technologies. At the moment, Blue Origins

main priority is developing and refining the New Shepard rocket, which the company plans on

using for commercial space flight (Blue). The New Shepard began testing in 2015, but has since

been able to complete 5 successful launches, including a test involving an in-flight escape (Wall).

Complete with the largest windows on a rocket, a full envelope escape, vertical liftoff, and the

ability to be reused, the New Shepard is unmatched by any other commercial flight rocket

(Blue). In September 2016, Jeff Bezos, Blue Origin founder, announced the plans of creating a

bigger, more powerful successor to the New Shepard, the New Glenn rocket, aimed towards

commercial use as well as human transportation into space as reported by renowned news agency

Reuters (Reuters). Loren Gush, writer for The Verge, expanded on competition between SpaceX

and Blue Origin, stating that the New Glenn, upon completion, with be larger than SpaceXs

Falcon Heavy (Grush). SpaceXs current endeavors include Falcon 9, Falcon Heavy, and Dragon

are all detailed on the companys official website (SpaceX). All three of these rocket projects
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specialize in commercialized space carry, sending necessary products from Earth up to the

International Space Station. This has been successful enough to that point where following the

Space Shuttle Program, NASA and SpaceX have partnered up to resupply the International Space

Station using SpaceXs Falcon 9 and Dragon rockets (SpaceX). When the Dragon first reached

ISS, the rocket was the first and only commercial spacecraft to do so without aid of the

government. The Falcon 9 rocket is a two-part vehicle specializing in reliability for SpaceX and

the government alike. At the moment, all of the rockets are undergoing testing, however, the

Falcon Heavy is the only rocket not to have been formally launched. Once the Falcon Heavy is

built and launched, the rocket will be the most powerful operational in the world since the life

off of NASAs Saturn V rocket built in the 1970s (SpaceX). As of right now, both SpaceX and

Blue Origin have plenty of room to grow before they begin sending humans into space, however,

each has made significant strides in improving their technologies to prepare themselves for the

next step.

In an effort to revitalize human curiosity and the exploration and even colonization of the

final frontier, SpaceX CEO Elon Musk and Blue Origin head Jeff Bezos have lead their

respective companies through multiple successes as well as multiple failures. To address the

question of whos currently winning the commercial space race, important factors such as

history, technology, and progress towards the prospect of commercial space tourism help decide

the ultimate winner: Blue Origin. Over its competitor, Blue Origin has had a nearly flawless

track record of test launches, is leagues ahead of SpaceX in time to market, and technology of

Blue Origin was designed with commercial space travel in mind putting the company at a major

advantage. The largest deciding factor was that Blue Origin is nearly entirely committed towards
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a future of commercial flight opportunities while SpaceX has an almost overwhelming amount of

projects in addition to their rocket program that space tourism seems like an initiative that can be

put on hold for the time being. The space race between the Soviets and the Americans is long

gone, but a new era of technology and curiosity has brought upon new competition and new

innovations.Though it may seem trivial and done for bragging rights, which is partly true, the

modern day space race towards serves an important purpose. Competition between companies

such as SpaceX and Blue Origin only drive humans to push harder and innovate in new ways.

The space race between the Soviets and the Americans is long gone, but a new era of technology

and curiosity has brought upon new competition, and thus new innovations. Even if to only

outdo another, healthy competition pushes humans to be better than before in a hopefully never

ending cycle.
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Works Cited

Bloomberg. SpaceX chief Elon Musk has Mars tourism on his mind starting in 10 years. The

National,www.thenational.ae/business/technology/spacex-chief-elon-musk-has-mars-

tourism-on-his-mind--starting-in-10-years. Accessed 19 December 2016.

Blue Origin. Blue Origin, www.blueorigin.com. Accessed 30 November 2016.

Chang, Kenneth. Blue Origin, Jeff Bezos Rocket Company, Passes an In-Flight Escape Test.

The New York Times,

www.nytimes.com/2016/10/06/science/space/blue-origin-rocket-crew-capsule.html.

Accessed 19 December 2016.

Foust, Jeff. Musk says Falcon 9 investigation remains SpaceXs top priority.

Space News, spacenews.com/musk-says-falcon-9-investigation-remains-spacexs-top-

priority/. Accessed 19 December 2016.

Giacalone, Joseph. The Evolving Private Spaceflight Industry: Space Tourism and Cargo

Transport. Proceedings of ASBBS. Vol. 20, no. 1, pp.643-650, February 2013.

Grush, Loren. Jeff Bezos unveils the design of Blue Origin's future orbital rocket the New

Glenn. The Verge, www.theverge.com/2016/9/12/12887580/blue-origin-orbital-rocket-

design-announced-new-glenn. Accessed 27 November 2016.

Patel, Neel. Should You Root for Blue Origin or SpaceX? Depends Whether You Like Big

Bangs. Inverse,

www.inverse.com/article/13197-should-you-root-for-blue-origin-or-spacex-depends-

whether-you-like-big-bangs. Accessed 3 December 2016.

Reuters. Jeff Bezos Has a New Rocket to Compete With Elon Musk's SpaceX. Fortune,

fortune.com/2016/09/12/jeff-bezos-rocket/?iid=leftrailhttp://www.spacex.com/falcon9.
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Accessed 16 December 2016.

SpaceX. SpaceX, www.spacex.com. Accessed 30 November 2016.

Wall, Mike. Buckle Up, Space Tourists! Blue Origin on Track to Launch People Next Year.

Space.com,www.space.com/34383-blue-origin-launch-astronauts-2017.html. Accessed 30

November 2016.

Wattles, Jackie. SpaceX's Elon Musk lays out the plan to put humans on Mars. CNN Tech,

money.cnn.com/2016/09/27/technology/spacex-elon-musk-mars-colonization/. Accessed

12 December 2016.

Woolf, Nicky. SpaceX founder Elon Musk plans to get humans to Mars in six years.

The Guardian,

www.theguardian.com/technology/2016/sep/27/elon-musk-spacex-mars-colony.

Accessed 3 December 2016.