Commercial space cowboys reach for the stars

If you've run out of ideas of where to go on holiday and want to take it to the next level, space tourism could be your thing — if you have the money to spare. Here's a look at some of the pros and cons.

In the wake of NASA's Apollo and space shuttle missions, it seemed that the halcyon days of space exploration had had their run. Interest waned and many people no longer saw the point.

More recently, however, interest has been piqued again, not least by the myriad of inter

national missions to Mars.

The latest craze is commercial space tourism as offered by

several private spaceflight companies. The three leading contenders are currently showing the world who has the biggest, er, rocket to take themselves and anyone who has enough spare change into space.

British entrepreneur Richard Branson, the founder of Virgin Galactic, beat fellow billionaire Jeff Bezos into space when he and five crew members successfully launched into suborbital space — defined as reaching outer space but with a trajectory that does not take it into orbit — last Sunday, arriving at an altitude of 80 kilometers (50 miles), which is the boundary of outer space as recognized by the United States.

To date, Virgin Galactic had about 600 bookings for the 1-1/2 hour flight, priced at around $250,000 (€212,000).

Next in line is Bezos, who plans to embark on his own space adventure on Tuesday

Bezos has said he wants to make space travel environmentally sustainable

Richard Branson beat his fellow space tourism competitors into suborbital space