Jeff Bezos and celebrity fiancé Lauren Sanchez arrive in Los Angeles on his $65 million private jet

Jeff Bezos, Sir Richard Branson and Elon Musk, named after the NewSpace group, say they were inspired by the first moon landing in 1969, when the United States defeated the Soviet Union in the space race, and there’s no doubting how much. Each of them means winning the new space race.

Amazon founder Bezos appeared to be the first to fly into space after announcing plans for a July 20 launch aboard his New Shepard Blue Origin spacecraft.

The billionaire billionaire will travel with his younger brother Mark, $28 million charity auction winner and astronaut Wally Funk, 82.

However, Branson has now announced that he plans to take a sub-orbital flight nine days ahead of Bezos and his brother. He revealed on Twitter that he plans to be Astronaut 001 for the Virgin Galactic test flight on July 11.

Although Musk, the founder of SpaceX and Tesla, said he wanted to go to space, and even “die on Mars,” he didn’t say when he could launch into Earth orbit.

SpaceX appears to be leading the way in the billionaire’s broader space race with several launches with NASA equipment to the International Space Station and partnerships to send tourists into space by 2021.

On February 6, 2018, SpaceX sent a rocket into Mars orbit, 140 million miles away, with Musk’s red Tesla Roadster attached.

NASA has already selected two astronauts to board the first manned Dragon mission.

SpaceX has also begun sending constellations of 60 satellites into space to help form its Starlink network.

Musk hopes this will create an interconnected network of satellites around the Earth that will provide free internet to people all over the world.

Branson and Virgin Galactic have a different approach to taking up the space. It has repeatedly successfully conducted test flights with Virgin Galactic unit aircraft.

The first occurred in December 2018 and the last on May 22, with the flight accelerating to more than 2,000 mph (Mach 2.7).

More than 600 wealthy clients, including celebrities Brad Pitt and Katy Perry, have so far booked a $250,000 (£200,000) seat on a Virgin space flight.

Branson previously said he expects Elon Musk to win the race to Mars through his rocket company, SpaceX.

SpaceShipTwo can carry six passengers and two pilots. Each passenger gets the same seating position with two large windows – one on the side and one over the head.

The spaceship has a length of 60 feet and a cabin diameter of 90 inches providing maximum space for astronauts to float without gravity.

It rises to 50,000 feet before the rocket engine ignites. The SpaceShipTwo detaches from its carrier vehicle, the White Knight II, once it crosses the 50-mile mark.

Passengers become “astronauts” when they reach the Kerman Line, which is the boundary of Earth’s atmosphere.

The spacecraft will then make a sub-orbital flight of about six minutes of weightlessness, and the entire flight will take about 1.5 hours.

Bezos revealed in April 2017 that he funds Blue Origin with about $1 billion (£720 million) in Amazon stock annually.

The system consists of a pressurized crew pod on top of a reusable booster New Shepard missile.

Bezos is one of the richest men in the world and Blue Origin has successfully launched New Shepard 15 times.

At its peak, the capsule reached 65 miles (104 kilometers), just above the official space threshold, and landed vertically seven minutes after launch.