The Space Race was originally between the USA and USSR but since the USA landed on the Moon in 1969 the momentum has gone out of Space Exploration but now it's back on but rather than nations it's between billionaires, namely Elon Musk, Jeff Bezos and Richard Branson.
Filling the void left by Government funding cuts, the three have ambitions for the development of space tourism and developing permanent human settlement on the Moon and even Mars.
Amazon's Jeff Bezos is the Worlds richest man and started Blue Origin in 2000 and aims to create reusable rockets to use for space tourists and aims to sell tickets from next year, for up to $300,000 a trip and set up a permanent human settlement of the Moon.
Paypal founder, Elon Musk, started SpaceX in 2002 and has won contracts to deliver satellites into orbit and to help resupply the ISS but also has it's sights set on sending people into space on commercial flights with it's ultimate goal sending manned flights to Mars and eventually colonise the Red Planet.
Richard Branson founded Virgin Galactic in 2004 with the aim of developing 'space planes' to take space tourists up and away and has started selling tickets for $250,000, and recently Branson said the company: 'will be in space in weeks, not months'.
Considering what we are doing to our Planet, finding ways to escape our own small ball of rock is essential and i don't care which of the three makes the breakthrough but i would prefer it not to be Elon Musk whose recent antics with the British cave diver show that all the money in the World can't buy you class.
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