Billionaires' Purposeful Space Tourism... Capturing the $1 Trillion Annual Industry [Im Juhyung's Tech Talk]

Virgin Galactic Followed by Blue Origin's Space Tourism Success
Billionaires Invest Billions in Space Companies
The 'Tycoons' Space Race' Heats Up
Some Criticize as "Playground for the Rich"
Morgan Stanley: Space Industry to Reach $1 Trillion Annually by 2040
Competition Beyond Tourism to Complete 'Space Development Infrastructure'

Richard Branson, Chairman of Virgin Group / Photo by Yonhap News

[Asia Economy Reporter Lim Juhyung] Following Richard Branson, chairman of the Virgin Group, Amazon founder Jeff Bezos has also succeeded in experiencing 'weightlessness,' raising expectations that the era of space tourism is taking its first steps. Billionaires like Branson and Bezos are pouring trillions of won of their own assets into developing space technology.

However, there is still a long way to go before the space tourism business becomes truly profitable. The risk of failure remains high. Despite these risks, billionaires are going 'all-in' on space ventures because they are aiming for a bigger pie.

Earlier, on the 11th (local time), Branson took the spaceship VSS Unity, manufactured by the space tourism company Virgin Galactic, to an altitude of 88 km and succeeded in experiencing weightlessness. Shortly after, Bezos boarded Blue Origin's ballistic rocket 'New Shepard,' ascending to an altitude of 100 km to experience space.

Both plan to open the full-fledged era of space tourism based on the spaceship technologies demonstrated this time. Branson's Virgin Galactic plans to invest in spaceship development and infrastructure improvement through a paid-in capital increase worth about $500 million (approximately 576.1 billion KRW). Virgin Galactic has already sold space tourism tickets to more than 600 famous singers and businesspeople.

Meanwhile, Elon Musk, CEO of Tesla and owner of SpaceX, which developed the world's first reusable rocket, is also planning an Earth orbit tour with a manned spacecraft carrying civilians this September, indicating that the global billionaires' 'space race' is expected to heat up day by day.

Space exploration company Blue Origin's space tourism rocket 'New Shepard Manned Capsule' / Photo by Yonhap News

CEOs Musk, Branson, and Bezos have invested trillions of won of their own wealth over the past several years to establish space technology companies.

However, the space tourism business they dream of still has a long way to go before commercialization. In fact, Branson's Virgin Galactic and Bezos's Blue Origin are still close to being 'money pits,' running losses of tens of millions of dollars. These companies cannot survive without the financial support of billionaires.

As a result, some skeptics view the space tourism business with doubt, belittling the billionaires' space race as 'just a hobby.' The British daily The Independent recently criticized them, saying, "While the Earth is burning, the rich ride expensive amusement rides." The American media outlet The Washington Post also pointed out that "the billionaires' space race is reminiscent of past big tech CEOs competing over who has the bigger yacht."

However, there is also a perspective that the billionaires' space race is not merely a tourism business but a strategic move targeting the entire space industry.

The spaceships used by billionaires for space tourism go beyond simple tourism and involve foundational technologies used in orbital launch vehicles, space probes, and transport ships.

For example, Branson's Virgin Galactic uses technology that loads a spaceship onto a conventional airplane, flies it to a certain altitude, and then fires a rocket engine to break through the atmosphere. This method is very similar to the rocket launch technology of Branson's second space development company, Virgin Orbit. Virgin Orbit is a new launch vehicle developer that reduces costs by mounting rockets on conventional passenger planes and launching them mid-air.

SpaceX's Falcon 9 reusable rocket is already being actively utilized across the entire space industry. / Photo by SpaceX Twitter capture

Reusable rocket developers such as Blue Origin and SpaceX also have the grand goal of 'space colonization' beyond simple space tourism. SpaceX, which has already succeeded in commercializing rockets, is currently involved in various tasks such as satellite transportation, space cargo supply, and probe launches. In other words, the technologies billionaires invest in are interpreted as preliminary steps to building infrastructure for space colonization.

The expected profits from dominating the space industry are enormous. According to an analysis by the American investment bank Morgan Stanley, the space industry, which was worth $350 billion (approximately 403 trillion KRW) last year, is expected to grow to $1 trillion (approximately 1,151 trillion KRW) by 2040. The application fields are vast, including communication and image analysis services via satellites, space cargo transportation, planetary exploration and development, and space tourism. The 'core infrastructure' that ties these application fields together is the launch vehicles developed by Virgin Galactic, Blue Origin, SpaceX, and others.

In this regard, the British BBC explained on the 22nd (local time) in an article titled "A Long Quest to Build a Galactic Civilization" that "behind the headlines of billionaires jumping into space lies a deeper motivation," describing it as "a belief that expansion into space can lead humanity to prosperity."

However, there are also warnings that space development projects should not become monopolized by a small number of companies. The BBC emphasized, "In the long term, space development should be a project for all humanity," adding, "Perhaps building a civilization that reaches the galaxy could be humanity's future, but the decision should not be monopolized by a few billionaires."