Space Galacticos

SpaceShipTwo of Virgin Galactic ; Nautilus of Bigelow Aerospace

Even though the technology has been around for ages, Space tourism is finally taking off(sorry for the sad pun). It promises to be the next big thing. The Space race is almost a throwback to the US-Soviet Moon Wars but with space for everyone and more!

Probably the largest entrant in this race is Richard Branson's Virgin Galactic. It aims to send 50,000 civilians on a thrill ride more than 62 miles (100 km) up into space--to escape gravity and ogle our small fragile planet at a mere $200,000 or 90lakhs. The sale of tickets for the first 100 passengers who will be known as the 'Founders'(i'd prefer the name Galacticos after the Real Madrid stars!) is already closed, with a lone Indian in the list.

Another aspiring albeit a secretive entrant is Jeff Bezos of Amazon.com . His space tourism company, Blue Origin, is based on a Texas ranch. It’s developing a rocket ship called the New Shepard. A flight on the vehicle would last just a few minutes and allow a brief period of weightlessness.

Branson and his peers are confining themselves to suborbital travel for now: blastoff, a few minutes of zero gravity at the edge of space, then back again. The technology to make this type of trip has been around for decades, though the NewSpacers are working to make the trip exponentially cheaper, better, and faster.

The most ambitious project of them all is Robert Bigelow's hotel in space concept. Similar to the International Space Station but much larger, Bigelow’s project uses a cast-off NASA system of inflatable pods.

It would be interesting to watch this race. One thing for sure, in twenty years time it would fairly commonplace to travel to space.