There’s clearly something in the water that multi-billionaires drink. 

Stacking cash on planet Earth is fun and all, but for some reason, guys like Jeff Bezos, Elon Musk and Richard Branson aren’t just “interested” in space travel.  They are freaking obsessed. 

All are offering rides into space too. So if you’ve got an out-of-this-world sense of adventure and few hundred grand you have no problem saying goodbye to, here’s your options for hitching a ride with these three space cadets…

Blue Origin (AKA “Air Bezos”)

This might be the one thing you actually can’t purchase on Amazon; a seat on the Jeff Bezos owned rocket company that the world’s richest person just put up for auction. 

Coming up on July 20, Blue Origin is taking an 11-minute flight with six astronauts to the very edge of space. That’s just a fancy way of saying you’ll go 62 miles in the air. 

Bezos has been itching to open up a space tourism branch of Blue Origin, and I guess it’s finally about to happen. 

The name the spacecraft the winning bidder will fly on is called The New Shepard.  

Up it will go, roughly 47 miles above earth when all of a sudden the spacecraft will disconnect from its rocket booster. 

That’s when the fun will start, assuming the lucky civilian isn’t barfing his brains out at this point.  Once it detaches, everyone will unbuckle and then experience weightlessness for about three minutes.  Then they turn around and head home. 

So far, the New Shepard has successfully completed 15 test flights, but July 20 will mark the first time humans are on board. 

On May 19 we’re going to see all the bids that have been made, and then on June 12, there will be a live online-auction where the one seat will be sold to th ehighest bidder. 

SpaceX (AKA- “The Flying Musk-Mobile”)

Elon Musk’s SpaceX has some interesting and exciting plans to launch civilians into the stratosphere. 

Don’t worry, this is not the mission where he said last week that “some people might die.”  No, that’s the trip to Mars, this is the “world’s first all-civilian mission” that will take place later this year. 

It’s a good will mission so to speak, as Jared Isaacman, the founder and CEO of Shift4Payments will be captaining the excursion.  He’s a seasoned pilot, so it’s not like you’ll have a dentist or stock broker commanding the mission. 

Isaacman is donating the three seats next to him, and all the proceeds are going to raise funds for St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital. 

This is a NASA-approved mission, and it will showcase SpaceX’s Draon spacecraft and Falcion 9 rocket.  This trip has a much cooler itinerary than Blue Origin’s; The spacecraft will circle Earth multiple times.  Count on one lap around the globe per 90 minutes. 

This goes on for two to four days!  Then it returns to earth and lands in the Atlantic off the coast of Florida. 

Virgin Galactic (AKA – Richard Branson’s rocket that might not get off the ground)

There’s a third Amigo in the billionaire space race.  British tycoon Sir Richard Branson and his Virgin Galactic. 

This has been a rough week for the 17-year old Virgin. (Galactic was formed in 2004)

The stock price got clobbered Monday before rallying Tuesday, all because of further delays with Galactic’s spaceflight tests and the hoped for actual launch into space. 

According to the company it’s the old standby excuse used in aviation for years; mechanical issues. 

The stock feel 20% on Monday before getting all the losses back. 

On the docket for this rocket is four test flights, and then hopefully an actual space flight in 2022. 

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