Richard Branson flew to space aboard SpaceShipTwo on Virgin Galactic’s Unity 22, and Jeff Bezos flew to space aboard Blue Origin’s New Shepard 16. I share my thoughts on the flights, the vehicles, and how I’m currently looking at suborbital tourism and why it does or doesn’t matter.

This episode of Main Engine Cut Off is brought to you by 42 executive producers—Brandon, Matthew, Simon, Lauren, Melissa, Kris, Pat, Matt, Jorge, Ryan, Donald, Lee, Chris, Warren, Bob, Russell, Moritz, Joel, Jan, Grant, David, Joonas, Robb, Tim Dodd (the Everyday Astronaut!), Frank, Julian and Lars from Agile Space, Tommy, Matt, The Astrogators at SEE, Chris, Aegis Trade Law, Fred, Hemant, and seven anonymous—and 628 other supporters.

Topics

• Virgin Galactic's First Fully Crewed Spaceflight #Unity22 - YouTube
• Virgin Galactic on Twitter: “Take-off! The #Unity22 crew including @RichardBranson leave Spaceport America, New Mexico for #VirginGalactic’s first fully-crewed spaceflight.”
• T+163: Suborbital Crew, Virgin Galactic to ISS - Main Engine Cut Off
• T+105: Jonathan McDowell - Main Engine Cut Off
• Virgin Galactic flight test director Mark Stucky leaves company
• New Shepard First Human Flight - YouTube
• First Human Flight Post-Flight Press Conference - YouTube
• Slopes Ski & Snowboard - Track Your Winter Adventures

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• Music by Max Justus
• Artwork photo by NASA