Richard Branson's Virgin Galactic vs Jeff Bezos's Blue Origin: Who is better prepared?

With space billionaires Jeff Bezos and Richard Branson, who are ready to take off into space with their own spaceships, the private space industry has been keen to witness the historic moment. On one hand, where Jeff Bezos with his New Shepard is ready to fly into space on 20 July, on the other hand, Sir Richard Branson is also ready to launch his SpaceShipTwo nine days before Bezos on 11 July.

With the two giants competing with each other to go first to space, let's take a look at their 'space plan' and more things. 

Blue Origin's New Shepard by Jeff Bezos

According to Firstpost, New Shepard is a fully autonomous rocket that will take off from its launch site in remote West Texas. Powered by a B3 liquid-fuelled rocket motor that can burn for around two and a half minutes, the spacecraft reaches 55 km of altitude. With its vertical trajectory, the spaceship can easily reach space. The flight is set to last only for 10 minutes after which the capsule will reenter the atmosphere and drift back to the earth. 

Virgin Galactic's SpaceShipTwo by Sir Richard Branson

The spaceship will be carried by a carrier aircraft, the WhiteKnightTwo up to 15 km altitude after which it will launch itself into space. At this moment, it will start its hybrid rocket motor in the engine which will be enough for it to reach 90 km peak altitude. 

New Shepard vs SpaceShipTwo

Comparing both the flights, the New Shephard and the SpaceShipTwo will last about 10 minutes with 3 or 4 minutes of weightlessness. But the returns are different from each other, the Virgin Galaxy rocket plane will glide to a landing on a runway whereas the Blue Origin's capsule will provide automatic parachutes to the desert floor, according to AP.

Talking about the ticket prices of both the flights, the Virgin Galactic has been reported of having 600 reservations already, whereas the tickets are priced around $250000. On the other hand, the Blue Origins has not yet announced any details about its pricing.

Both the flights have already been tested and the founders are very positive about the results. It will be now interesting to see who rules the launch.