Remember Virgin Galactic? Of course you do. Richard Branson’s brave idea to open up space travel to commercial passengers. When first launched interest in the venture was sky-high or is that space-high, with the rich and famous pre-booking very pricey tickets for the opportunity to check off the near impossible from their bucket lists.

Things went a little bit awry for Virgin Galactic in 2014 when a manual error from a pilot led to the crash of a Virgin Galactic test flight. The launch was especially significant as it was using a craft that was built entirely by Virign Galactic’s own manufacturing arm known as “The Spaceship Company”.

Yet, in September of 2016, Virgin Galactic bounced back in their bid to send commuters to space. They successfully flew their first test flight since the crash. It was the SpaceShipTwo space plane that flew with its mother ship. The SpaceShipTwo will eventually launch to reach space.

Many feel that SpaceX is hot on the heels of Virgin Galactic in the hunt for commercial space travel. The truth is though that the two companies are very different. Virign Galactic hopes to make space travel an experience available for the elite traveler without any prior astronautical background. This will come at the cost of $250,000 a ticket. This means that Virgin Galactic is essentially a space airline.

SpaceX deals more with governmental contracts. This is with the ability to launch satellites into space for the government. It is true however that SpaceX does harbor aspirations to settle people in Mars. This is not the same as Virgin Galactic who will not be touching down anywhere but rather simply giving people a ride into outer space.

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