Infographic: Billionaire space tourism

Space travel, once reserved for rival superpowers, is now available to anyone who can afford it.

Billionaires Richard Branson and Jeff Bezos are set to fly into the final frontier on board their own spacecraft during the month of July. On July 11 at 14:30 GMT, Branson, founder of the Virgin Group, along with two pilots and three other passengers will lift off from Virgin Galactic’s operational base at Spaceport America in the New Mexico desert. His crew will reach a peak altitude of some 89km (55 miles) and experience a few minutes of weightlessness before making a gliding descent back to Earth. Nine days later, on July 20, Bezos, Amazon executive chairman will blast off from a reusable rocket from a launchpad in west Texas with five others including his brother Mark. His crew will reach an altitude of roughly 100km (62 miles).