https://www.vice.com/en_us/article/akg4gk/the-billionaire-space-race-has-nothing-to-do-with-space > Ever since COVID-19 pandemic lockdowns started easing up, billionaires have been eager to spread their wings. Last month, then-Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos announced he was going to suborbital space in a Blue Origin vehicle two weeks after his last day on the job. Virgin Galactic CEO Richard Branson saw an opening and announced he would beat Bezos by 9 days and take flight on his company's spaceplane on July 11. > On Sunday, Branson, along with two pilots and three other passengers, took off on the VSS Unity and soared up 86 kilometers for a few minutes before returning to Earth. Virgin made a big deal out of this flight, releasing a company promo video with the tagline, "If we can do this, imagine what else we can do," and many celebrated Branson's space travel as being an important step for humanity—except it wasn’t, unless you're an investor.