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Most of Branson's competitors are intent on rocketing right off the launchpad. But Virgin Galactic's SpaceShipTwo flies in lazy circles up to 50,000 ft.--spy-plane territory--attached to a huge turbojet launch plane. Then SpaceShipTwo drops away and rockets off into space at 3,500 m.p.h. on its laughing-gas engine. Aboard the spaceship the two pilots will cut the rockets and the ship will coast up to 80 miles, well outside the atmosphere. For 4 min., the six passengers (now astronauts!) can unstrap and float weightless around the cabin. Earth will look like a shiny...
...which would allow him to slip the earthly confines of his wheelchair. One of the royals (Prince Harry, Princess Beatrice?) is a possible passenger, not to mention publicity bonanza. Pilot Alex Tai, Galactic's chief of operations, claims that the market--even at $200,000 a shot--is huge, with 8 million millionaires worldwide, a couple of whom have already spent $20 million each to fly with the Russians. Branson wants to keep bringing the price down, so middle-class families can vacation in the ether. By year two, deposits will be down to $20,000, says Tai, heralding...
...with the most secretive business plan is Amazon boss Bezos, who launched his Seattle-based Blue Origin in 2000 and started buying up a huge swath of land in West Texas near Van Horn, arousing the suspicions of locals. Bezos plans to build a spaceport and aerospace testing center at the desert site but is taking it "slow and steady." (His company motto is Gradatim ferociter, which roughly translated means "Step by step, fiercely.") It's unclear how much funding Bezos, 43, is putting into the venture, but he has been doing it the NASA way, spending huge amounts...
That leaves a huge price gap for the likes of EOS, whose one-class structure can deliver a top-shelf product at a relatively low price and still make a decent profit, says EOS founder and strategic director David Spurlock. "You now have this new entrant that is zealous about delivering outstanding service and quality--and that's all they do. The large enterprise--which is juggling economy, strategies, pressures from discounters, international routes with domestic routes--has a hard time keeping pace." EOS's usual fare to London, $7,500, undercuts BA's by 20%; its lowest fare...
...going to have to spend millions to prosecute and detain him. The U.S. could wipe out the drug trade tomorrow through legalization and taxation, which would take away the enormous profits earned in illicit trade and reduce theft by addicts who steal to support their habit. The huge sums saved on incarceration and policing could be spent on health care and education...