纽约（美国有线电视新闻网）当后代写下太空旅行的历史时，2021 年很可能会有自己的篇章，它可能被称为“亿万富翁年” 。
杰夫·贝索斯和理查德·布兰森各自乘坐超音速快艇到达太空边缘，在大约二十年的承诺后，他们最终将他们竞争的私营航天器投入运营。 90 岁的《星际迷航》演员威廉·夏特纳和《早安美国》联合主持人迈克尔·斯特拉汉等名人紧随其后。另一位亿万富翁自筹资金，乘坐 SpaceX 轨道太空舱执行了一项历史性的为期三天的任务，该太空舱飞得比人类几十年来飞得更高。
而这一切都只是一个开始。
三位太空亿万富翁——布兰森、贝索斯和埃隆马斯克——都着眼于未来。在过去的一年里，他们的愿景不断地相互碰撞，激起了大量的争议和独门绝技。
以下是商业航天业在去年必须提供的一些最令人难忘的时刻的回顾。
布兰森诉贝索斯
布兰森和贝索斯的航天公司多年来一直致力于开发能够让付费客户进行短暂的超音速太空旅行的航天器，承诺将迎来一个预订从太空观看地球的航班变得如此简单的时代就像飞越大西洋一样。 （应该指出的是，马斯克的 SpaceX 不在亚轨道旅游游戏中。它的火箭和航天器需要更长时间、更危险的跋涉进入地球轨道。）
我们还没有到那里。但两位亿万富翁都承诺通过自己乘坐游乐设施来启动各自的亚轨道太空旅游业务，这既是为了表明他们对车辆安全性的信心，也是为了一些战略公关。
火箭公司 Blue Origin 的创始人 Bezos 计划成为有史以来第一个乘坐他自己公司开发的航天器前往太空的人，他的目标是 7 月 20 日的发射。 （Blue Origin 甚至以高达 2800 万美元的价格拍卖了一张与他并驾齐驱的机票，尽管这位拍卖的获胜者最终没有飞。）
然后，布兰森突然出现，几天后宣布他计划在 7 月 11 日——贝佐斯执行任务前 9 天，搭乘他的公司维珍银河开发的火箭动力太空飞机的下一次飞行。
这立即引发了一波猜测——尽管布兰森在接受采访时一再表示他不认为他与贝索斯的竞争是一场“竞赛”——但幕后正在酝酿一场激烈的竞争。
两位亿万富翁的飞行都没有出现明显问题，他们从各自的航天器中走出来，穿着定制的飞行服，对着镜头喜气洋洋。
除了奇观之外，这两个航班还为亿万富翁运送了一些著名的机组人员。
贝索斯加入了 82 岁的沃利·芬克 (Wally Funk)，后者曾在 1961 年为美国宇航局的水星计划接受过著名的训练，但从未去过太空，以及当时 18 岁的富商之子奥利弗·戴门 (Oliver Daemen)。这对夫妇分别成为有史以来最年长和最年轻的太空旅行人员。 （不久之后，90 岁的威廉·夏特纳打破了芬克的记录。）
布兰森带着维珍银河执行官西丽莎·班德拉 (Sirisha Bandla) 同行，后者成为第二位飞入太空并返回的印度出生女性。
2021: The year of space tourism
New York (CNN Business)When future generations write about the history of space travel, 2021 may well get its own chapter. "The year of the billionaires," it might be called.
Jeff Bezos and Richard Branson each took supersonic joy rides to the edge of space, finally bringing their competing private-sector spacecraft into operation after around two decades of promises. Celebrities such as 90-year-old "Star Trek" actor William Shatner and "Good Morning America" co-host Michael Strahan followed soon after. Another billionaire self-funded a historic, three-day mission aboard a SpaceX orbital capsule that flew higher than any human has traveled in decades.
And all that promises to just be the beginning.
The trio of space billionaires — Branson, Bezos and Elon Musk — have their eyes set squarely on the future. Over the past year, their visions continued to bump up against one another, stirring up plenty of controversy and one-upmanship.
Here's a look back at some of the most memorable moments the commercial space industry had to offer in the last year.
Branson v. Bezos
Branson's and Bezos' space companies have for years been working to develop spacecraft capable of taking paying customers on brief, supersonic trips to the edge of space, promising to usher in an age in which booking a flight to view the Earth from space is as easy as jetting across the Atlantic. (Musk's SpaceX, it should be noted, is not in the suborbital tourism game. Its rockets and spacecraft take much longer and more dangerous treks into Earth's orbit.)
We're not quite there yet. But both billionaires pledged to kick off their respective suborbital space tourism businesses by taking the rides themselves, both as a show of their confidence in their vehicles' safety and some strategic PR.
Bezos, founder of the rocket firm Blue Origin, planned to become the first person ever to travel to space aboard a spacecraft his own company developed, setting his sights on a July 20 launch. (Blue Origin even auctioned off a ticket to ride alongside him for a whopping $28 million, though that auction winner did not ultimately fly.)
Then, Branson swooped in, announcing days later that he planned to hop on the next flight of the rocket-powered space plane developed by his company, Virgin Galactic, on July 11 — nine days before Bezos' mission.
That set off an immediate wave of speculation that — although Branson has repeatedly said in interviews he doesn't view his competition with Bezos as a "race" — there was a bitter rivalry brewing behind the scenes.
Both billionaires' flights ended without apparent issue, with the men emerging from their respective spacecraft outfitted in custom flight suits and beaming for the cameras.
Adding to the spectacle, both flights also carried some notable crewmates for the billionaires.
Bezos was joined by 82-year-old Wally Funk, who famously trained for NASA's Mercury program in 1961 but never went to space, and then-18-year-old Oliver Daemen, the son of a wealthy businessman. The pair became the oldest and youngest people, respectively, ever to travel to space. (Funk's record was bested shortly after by the 90-year-old William Shatner.)
Branson took with him Virgin Galactic executive Sirisha Bandla, who became only the second Indian-born woman to fly to space and back.
