when americans first walked on the moon 50 years ago the idea of space travel crystallized into a graspable future bolstered by a geeky shift in pop culture that launched and relaunched franchises like star wars battlestar galactica and star trek americans saw intergalactic storylines that never touched earth life in space seemed so close yet the last time americans went to the moon was in 1972 and with the closure of the national aeronautics and space administration nasas space shuttle program in 2011 the us government currently doesnt have the ability to fly astronauts anywhere more video virgin galactic sends a test passenger into space for future space tourism theres a couple young people who watched the lunar lander 50 years ago and thought by 1980 well have bases on the moon and by 2000 well be on mars commercial spaceflight federation csf president eric stallmertold abc news and theres a bunch of entrepreneurs who are thinking why cant we do that its exactly that frustration that weve not further explored space that could lead to the closest well get to space tourism yet possibly by the end of this year richard branson is presented with a spacethemed cake during a luncheon attended by 100 virgin galactic ticket holders to mark his 69th birthday and in recognition of show more ap photojohn raoux richard bransons virgin galactic and amazon founder jeff bezoss blue origin plan to take passengers to suborbital space where the earths atmosphere meets outer space which is 62 miles 100 kilometers above sea level impatient with the government space exploration has shifted into the hands of private companies in the last five decades founded by an elite trio of titans in other industries the geek fantasy billionaire boys club of branson bezos and elon musks spacex there is a frustration among space barons and the space industry in general that there isnt a base on the moon that we havent been to mars we havent done any of the great things after apollo christian davenport author of the space barons elon musk jeff bezos and the quest to colonize the cosmos told abc news the closest the average person with means is to becoming an astronaut would be to fly to the edge of space with virgin galactic which expects to start these trips in as soon as a few months more richard bransons virgin galactic plans tourist trips to space within a year bransons company completed two manned flights to the space this past year the trip goes to whats considered suborbital space or the edge of space to experience about four minutes of weightlessness and look down at earth from the edge of its atmosphere despite the 250000 price tag for the flights virgin galactics wait list is real the company said that 600 future astronauts have paid 80 million in deposits bezos blue origin is next on track to get flights into suborbital space he plans on sending humans