They’ve claimed the title of billionaire on Earth. Now Jeff Bezos and Richard Branson are facing off to see who will be the reigning space baron in a modern space race.
You know the who and the what. How about the where?
When he launched into space on July 11, Branson did it from Spaceport America, Virgin Galactic’s spaceflight headquarters. It’s located on 27 acres of New Mexico desert outside the town of Truth or Consequences.
This is a public-private partnership, which may be why Branson has been more forthcoming about the goings-on there.
Built in 2006, Spaceport America launched its first rocket that same year and has fired off more than 300 since, the most recent being the crewed VSS Unity.
If you take a 220-mile drive across the Texas border, you’ll reach the town of Van Horn.
In 2003, Bezos bought thousands of acres about 25 miles north of town to build Blue Origin’s Launch Site One. He’s a lot more secretive about his privately funded facility than Branson is.
All we know is Blue Origin has been testing equipment out in the Guadalupe Mountains since 2005 and the company is slated to shoot the New Shepard into space with Bezos and crew onboard on July 20.