Space station astronauts welcome civilian space travel as billionaires prepare to launch

As two billionaires prepare for launch this month on milestone space flights, professional astronauts aboard the International Space Station said Friday they fully support commercialization and look forward to a rapidly expanding civilian presence on the high frontier.

Virgin Galactic founder Richard Branson plans to join five company crewmates for a short up-and-down flight to sub-orbital space on July 11. Nine days later, Amazon founder Jeff Bezos plans to blast off on his own sub-orbital flight aboard a New Shepard spacecraft built by Blue Origin, a company he founded in 2000. Both companies plan commercial operations flying wealthy space tourists, government and private-sector researchers and experiments that can take advantage of the few minutes of weightlessness the flights will offer.