The first space-tourist flights could take off in 2019.
Two companies pursuing space tourism say they're only months away from their first out-of-this-world passenger flights.
Competitors, fire your rockets. They are:
--Blue origin which has been testing in far West Texas. The company was founded by Amazon mastermind Jeff Bezos.
--Virgin Galactic, founded by British billionaire Richard Branson.
The two competitors use different technologies, but have the same goal: passenger flights in 2019.
The companies say non-astronauts are the next frontier in space travel.
They’re racing to be the first to finish their tests.
Some news reports say Bezos’ Blue Origin plans to charge at $200,000 per passenger, but neither company has posted specific flight schedules or spacefares.
Less than 600 people have ever gone into space – and only a handful of non-astronaut citizens have been among them.