The real question is since Elin has a working orbital spaceship the Dragon 2 why doesn’t he just pick 6 friends and take one up for a half day in orbit then land in the Gulf of Mexico. No additional work needed he already has a human rates spaceship that has twice now sent people to the ISS it would be super easy to just go up orbit for 12 hours or 24 and come back the Dragon certainly has the endurance for it. So why let Bezo be the “first”
The real question is since Elin (Elon) has a working orbital spaceship the Dragon 2 why doesn’t he just pick 6 friends and take one up for a half day in orbit then land in the Gulf of Mexico. No additional work needed he already has a human rates spaceship that has twice now sent people to the ISS it would be super easy to just go up orbit for 12 hours or 24 and come back the Dragon certainly has the endurance for it. So why let Bezo be the “first”
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Since the Dragon capsule is man-rated - Musk could just as easily go for a stay on ISS at LEO - ISS orbits around 250 miles up - which would be 4X what the losers were able to achieve: going to the Karman Line (100km; 54 nautical miles; 62 miles; 330,000 feet).
Bezos and Branson are the first private people to go up to at or near the edge of space in their own company’s creation. Unlike Musk, they are in the tourism racket; Musk is in the space & exploration business - 2 different business models.