Racing Into Space

Three . . . two . . . one . . . Liftoff! A new era for space travel began on July 11 with the launch of the Virgin Galactic space plane. Its crew included billionaire Richard Branson, who founded the company. The plane rocketed to the edge of space, about 53 miles above Earth’s surface, before safely returning home. 

Nine days later, billionaire Jeff Bezos was one of the first passengers that his company Blue Origin sent into space. Their spacecraft soared even higher, about 66 miles above Earth. 

The success of those trips opened the door to commercial spaceflights that will bring in big money for those companies. In the past, most space missions have been organized by government agencies, such as NASA, for research or exploration. But Branson’s and Bezos’s companies are competing for customers who will pay to fulfill their dreams of going to space. 

Another billionaire, Elon Musk, plans to take this “space race” into new territory this fall. His company SpaceX is preparing to send a crew on a three-day mission that will orbit Earth.

Three . . . two . . . one . . . Liftoff! A new era for space travel began on July 11. That's when the company Virgin Galactic launched a space plane. Its crew included billionaire Richard Branson, who founded the company. The plane rocketed to the edge of space, about 53 miles above Earth’s surface. Then it safely returned home. 

Nine days later, billionaire Jeff Bezos was one of the first passengers that his company Blue Origin sent into space. Their spacecraft soared even higher. It went about 66 miles above Earth. 

Those two trips opened a new door to commercial spaceflights. Those are spaceflights that companies launch to make money. In the past, most space missions were organized by government agencies, like NASA. The government missions were for research and exploration. But now, companies like Blue Origin and Virgin Atlantic are competing for customers who will pay to go to space. 

Another billionaire, Elon Musk, plans to take this “space race” into new territory this fall. His company is SpaceX. They will send a crew on a three-day mission that will orbit Earth. 

Seats on the three-day SpaceX mission that will orbit Earth may cost even more. (So far, the company has kept the price secret.) Billionaire Jared Isaacman will be one of the crew members. He bought all four seats on the mission and donated two of them to St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital. One of the spots went to Hayley Arceneaux (AR-seh-noh), who works at the hospital. She also used to be one of its patients.

As a kid, Arceneaux dreamed of becoming an astronaut. But when she was 10, she found out she had bone cancer. She was treated at St. Jude, where she had part of her left leg replaced by metal rods. Now, Arceneaux is looking forward to becoming the first person with a prosthetic limb to travel to space.

“I never would have had this opportunity before because, until now, astronauts had to be physically perfect,” she says. 

Not everyone is lucky enough, or rich enough, to get to travel to space. But Arceneaux hopes her mission, called Inspiration4, will spark more people to become interested in space exploration. 

“We’re paving a way to space for people who are not classically trained astronauts or who never would have been able to experience space before,” she says.

Seats on the SpaceX mission that will orbit Earth may cost even more. (So far, the company has kept the price a secret.) Billionaire Jared Isaacman will be one of the crew members. He bought all four seats on the mission. He donated two of them to St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital. One of the spots went to Hayley Arceneaux, who works at the hospital. She also used to be one of its patients.

As a kid, Arceneaux dreamed of becoming an astronaut. But when she was 10, she found out she had bone cancer. She was treated at St. Jude, where she had part of her left leg replaced by metal rods. Now, Arceneaux is looking forward to becoming the first person with a prosthetic limb to travel to space.

“I never would have had this opportunity before because, until now, astronauts had to be physically perfect,” she says. 

Not everyone is lucky enough, or rich enough, to get to travel to space. But Arceneaux hopes her mission will get more people interested in space exploration. 

“We’re paving a way to space for people who are not classically trained astronauts or who never would have been able to experience space before,” she says.