BEZOS? BRANSON? MUSK?

The so-called billionaire space race has dominated headlines of late thanks to countless rocket launches and commercial space flights to low Earth orbit.

But Blue Origin, Virgin Galactic, and SpaceX are not the only players in the modern space race which is a long way from the US-USSR competition of the 1950/60s.

The commercialisation of space exploration has enticed other nation-states to seize upon emerging economic opportunities, with some 72 nations now having their own space programme. Just six of these government-backed agencies have full launch capabilities – the US, Russia, China, India, Japan, and the European-wide agency. 

Each company and agency have their own scientific projects and business endeavours, but many now work together to achieve their share goals such as human and robotic missions to the Moon, Mars, and beyond.

As part of The Good Information Project this month, we’re looking to find out where Ireland and the EU fit into the current space race and we want to hear from you.

But today we’re asking: Who do you think is leading the modern space race?

This work is co-funded by Journal Media and a grant programme from the European Parliament. Any opinions or conclusions expressed in this work is the author’s own. The European Parliament has no involvement in nor responsibility for the editorial content published by the project. For more information, see here.