The main challenger to Bezos’s potential crown is Elon Musk,whose companySpaceX is hoping to put astronauts on the Moon by 2024,and Mars soon after. Sir Richard Branson,meanwhile,has been targeting a personal space flight as soon as this summer,with rumours circulating on social media yesterday that he was seeking to take a Virgin Galactic trip on the weekend of July 4 - 16 days earlier than the Amazon founder’s intended launch date.
Bezos,57,is a self-confessed space fanatic,who once appeared in the filmStar Trek Beyond in a cameo dressed as an alien and set up Blue Origin,into which he funnels $US1 billion from Amazon shares each year,in 2000. “You see it with a lot of the tech guys,” says Ashlee Vance,author ofElon Musk:Tesla,SpaceX,and the Quest for a Fantastic Future. “They’re of the generation of people who grew up onStar Trek andStar Wars and loads of sci-fi novels.”
“Through a twist of good fortune,they’ve ended up as the wealthiest humans on the planet and actually have the resources to make their childhood dreams come true. It’s an expected outcome when engineers with a geeky bent have risen to the top of society.” No wonder,then,that Bezos will celebrate stepping down from his chief executive role at Amazon next month by flying to space a fortnight later,on the anniversary of the Apollo Moon landings.
For he,Musk and Branson,galactic travel is a battle of both egos and wealth. According to Tim Fernholz,author ofRocket Billionaires,both Silicon Valley founders “share the fundamental view that going to space is vital for humanity. But their end goals differ substantially.”
Bezos,he says,sees much of human industry moving into space while preserving Earth,such as with space mining. Musk,on the other hand,is dedicated to expansion into the stars as a failsafe. In his own words,mankind risks “a giant war,a super volcano,or comet... we might just self-extinguish. And right now,civilisation is not looking super strong.”