Travelling to the edge of space (50 miles altitude) is not technically space, but the very boundary of space, and there are many craft that have been able to do that for decades.
The stratosphere (20-60km) comes before the mesosphere (60-80km) and from there is the thermosphere (80-600) and once that threshold is overcome there is the exosphere (600-10,000km).
For a mere € 17500 for a 50 min flight, you can fly to the stratosphere in a Mig 29 and garner pretty much the same experience as a Branson Virgin Galactic flight for a fraction of the $250,000 cost.
Of course, kids on YouTube have been sending stuff into the edge of space for years, including items like garlic bread, pizza and even a McDonald’s burger.
You can also do the Felix Baumgartner or Alan Eustace space dive route, but that’s way out of most budgets and fucking dangerous.
As for Bezos, and the battle of the billionaires, he plans to actually use a penis-shaped rocket to go one step above Branson and access the thermosphere about 65 miles above sea level, and past the Karman line. Tickets on his rocket of doom will cost you a lousy $28 million per seat, which is invariably out of reach for most Amazon warehouse workers or bottle pissing Amazon delivery drivers. For 28 million bucks you will get four minutes of weightlessness, and a damn good view, as well as knowing for posterity’s sake that you actually travelled into space and not the boundary as Branson has done.
