Explained | Why billionaires are going to space

Bezos, Branson recently made widely publicised trips to sub-orbital space

The story so far: Billionaires Jeff Bezos and Richard Branson made news this week for their privately funded flight trips to sub-orbital space. Mr. Branson was initially scheduled to make his trip a few months after Mr. Bezos, but advanced the date to beat Mr. Bezos to space. Interestingly, Mr. Bezos’s company Blue Origin took a dig at Mr. Branson’s feat, stating that Mr. Branson’s flight did not reach sufficient altitude to make the British billionaire’s trip qualify as a space flight. Elon Musk is another American billionaire who has taken keen interest in travel to space. His company SpaceX, apart from other expeditions to space, sent two NASA astronauts to the International Space Station just last year. Each of these billionaires claims to have been fascinated by the idea of space travel ever since their childhood. As businessmen, however, they can also see a tremendous opportunity to make money by exploiting resources in space. At the moment, it is unclear what exactly they plan to tap from space, as has been the case with any nascent industry. Space tourism is one goal that has been explicitly stated.