Alright y’all, private space travel is honestly living rent-free in my head right now and has been ever since I stayed up until stupid o’clock last week watching yet another Starship test go… uh… partially according to plan.
I’m sitting here in my apartment outside DC—well, technically the sad suburbs—surrounded by three half-dead succulents, a tower of delivery boxes, and the faint smell of burnt popcorn because I forgot I was reheating some again. The TV is paused on a freeze-frame of Booster 14 doing its flip maneuver and yeah, I’m still kinda emotional about it. That’s where I’m at with private space travel in early 2026.
Why Private Space Travel Feels Personal to Me (Even Though I’m Broke)
Look, I’m not rich. I will never be one of the 15 people who can afford a New Shepard joyride or whatever insane price tag Starship orbital tourism eventually carries. But somehow watching these two companies duke it out still feels like… my team is playing.
When I was 12 I had a little model Space Shuttle on my shelf that my dad bought me at the Kennedy Space Center gift shop. It fell apart in like 2009 because glue tech in the 90s was apparently trash. Anyway, back then space felt like something the government did and we all clapped politely.
Now? I refresh X at 2:47 a.m. yelling “LET’S GOOOOO” alone in my living room like I personally welded those heat shield tiles. That shift is 100% because of SpaceX and Blue Origin fighting over the future of private space travel.
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SpaceX Right Now – Chaos I Can Respect
I’m just gonna say it: watching Starship tests is like watching your extremely talented but deeply chaotic friend try to parallel park a semi-truck while drunk.
The explosions are spectacular. The successes are jaw-dropping. Catch the booster? Insane. Catch it and then have the chopsticks slightly miss the next one? Also insane but in the opposite direction.
I genuinely love the raw honesty of “yeah we exploded again, see you in three weeks.” There’s something very American about that energy—like we’re all just making extremely expensive mistakes really fast until we get it right.
For more on where they’re actually at → SpaceX Starship updates – official site
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Blue Origin – The Quiet Kid Who Might Snap
Meanwhile Blue Origin has been grinding in relative silence and honestly it’s starting to freak me out in a good way.
New Glenn is finally on the pad for real in late 2025 / early 2026. They’ve been promising “this year” for approximately seventeen years but the photos coming out of Cape Canaveral right now actually look… done?
I respect the slow-and-steady thing. Bezos has said from day one he’s playing the very long game—decades, not quarters. That’s either brilliant or the most expensive mid-life crisis in history. Maybe both.
They’re also weirdly wholesome? Like the whole “Earth in space” Blue Marble branding and the very polite press releases. It’s almost passive-aggressive compared to Elon’s tweetstorms.
Good overview of their roadmap → Blue Origin New Glenn progress
Where Private Space Travel Is Actually Going (My Guesses as a Nobody)
Here’s my current unhinged ranked list of what I think happens next in private space travel by like… 2030-ish:
- Starship gets to orbit reliably and starts doing satellite mega-dumps
- New Glenn finally flies and quietly starts eating some of the heavy-lift market
- Someone (probably SpaceX) actually sends rich people around the Moon for clout
- Blue Origin opens a second launch site somewhere dramatic like Texas or Florida again because drama
- Ticket prices for suborbital drop to maybe… $200–300k? Still insane but less insane
- I still can’t afford any of it but I’ll watch from my couch and cry either way
Wednesday – “Pick Up That Knife”
Final Rambling Thoughts While My Pizza Gets Cold Again
Private space travel isn’t just cool rockets anymore—it’s become this weird proxy war for optimism vs cynicism in America. SpaceX is “we’re going to die so let’s go fast,” Blue Origin is “we have centuries, calm down.” Both are kinda right. Both are kinda wrong.
I don’t know who’s ultimately gonna “win” the future of private space travel. Probably neither one alone. Probably both of them plus whoever the hell is secretly working on something in a warehouse in Nevada right now.
Anyway. I’m gonna go reheat this pizza for the third time and watch the replay of the last Starship static fire. You should too. Or don’t. But if you ever get the chance to watch a rocket land on a pad instead of blowing up… do it. It still hits different.
What do you think—Team Chaos or Team Methodical? Drop it below. Or don’t. I’m not your mom.
(But seriously Team Chaos tho) 🚀
