buenos noches everybody!!! Hey!
upd: 15:08 UTC
upd: 15:15 UTC
buenos noches everybody!!! Hey!
upd: 15:08 UTC
upd: 15:15 UTC
When Jeff Bezos and Richard Branson take flight aboard the rockets their companies built, the hopes and dreams of a burgeoning industry will be flying with them as well.
Why it matters: Accidents or errors on these high-profile flights from Virgin Galactic or Blue Origin could derail their plans — and possibly affect others' plans — for commercial space tourism and travel.
Driving the news: Last week, Virgin Galactic announced that it would push to fly Branson and others on a fully crewed test flight on July 11, just ahead of Blue Origin's first flight with Bezos, scheduled for July 20.
The big picture: Launching and building satellites is a big moneymaker in the space industry, but suborbital space tourism is seen as a means of getting more people interested in the space industry in the long-term.
Flashback: An accident during a Virgin Galactic test flight in 2014 left one pilot dead.
Yes, but: The company did continue on, and public support for it has been steady.
What to watch: A major failure or problem could also put pressure on Congress to start pushing for more regulation of private human spaceflight, which some argue could stifle the space travel industry just as it is beginning.