理查德·布蘭森爵士和杰夫·貝佐斯都想率先實現商業太空旅行業務，而現在布蘭森本人似乎還想身體力行地打敗亞馬遜的這位億萬富翁老板，早一步進入太空。

布蘭森上周末接受BBC廣播四頻道采訪時說，他正在接受多項訓練，包括宇航員訓練、健身訓練和離心機訓練，這樣他的身體“或許能適應良好”。作為其中一項訓練，他還把網球運動量翻了一番，變成一天四盤。據報道，布蘭森希望能在一年內搭乘他的維珍銀河公司（Virgin Galactic ）的航線進行太空旅行。

說到誰能拔得頭籌的問題，布蘭森告訴BBC，“關于誰能先把人類送進太空”，他和貝佐斯“正齊頭并進”。但他補充道，“安全第一”，保證航空器能夠把人們平安運至太空是“一場和我們自身進行的比賽”。

布蘭森還說，實現商業太空旅行近在“幾個月之內，而非幾年”，他指出“未來將有許許多多激動人心的時刻。”

而另一邊，貝佐斯希望能在2019年開始運行亞軌道太空旅游航線。他上周參加太空發展大會時說，目前他的所有工作中，最重要的就是自己的太空公司藍色起源（Blue Origin）所推進的各項工作，貝佐斯在會上還強調了人們需要關注把月球作為未來定居點的想法。

“這不是什么遙不可及的未來，我認為，在幾十年或者100年之內，在太空里干我們現在在地球上干的許多事兒都會開始變得容易多了，因為那時候我們擁有大量能源。”貝佐斯在發言中說道。“我們將不得不離開這個星球。我們會離開，這會讓這個星球更美好。”

貝佐斯稱，“這不是個選擇題，而是必須要這么做”，不然我們就只能選擇“停滯”。

盡管懷有種種雄心壯志，貝佐斯也承認，太空探索和定居月球“無法由一個公司單獨完成。”他表達了希望和美國國家航空航天局（NASA）或歐洲太空署合作的想法，但承認這項事業最終需要“數千家公司數個世紀的通力合作”。（財富中文網）

譯者：Agatha?

Sir Richard Branson and Jeff Bezos each want to be the first to make commercial space travel a thing. And it seems that Branson is eager to personally beat the Amazon billionaire into space as well.

Branson told BBC Radio 4 over the weekend that he is undertaking a variety of training, including astronaut training, fitness training, and centrifuge, so that his body “will hopefully cope well.” As part of his training, he’s doubling his tennis playing to four sets a day. Branson reportedly hopes to become an astronaut with his company Virgin Galactic within 12 months.

Discussing who will get there first, Branson told the BBC that he and Bezos are “neck and neck as to who will put people into space first.” But, he added, they “have to do it safely,” calling it a “race with ourselves” to ensure that they each build a shuttle that is safe enough to send people to space.

Branson added that commercial space travel is “months away, not years away,” noting that “there are exciting times ahead.”

Bezos, meanwhile, hopes to start offering suborbital space tourism flights by 2019. Calling his work with his space company Blue Origin “the most important work” he’s doing at the Space Development Conference last week, Bezos also highlighted a need to focus on the moon as a place for eventual settlement.

“In the not-too-distant future—I’m talking decades, maybe 100 years, it’ll start to be easier to do a lot of the things that we currently do on Earth in space, because we’ll have so much energy,” Bezos told the audience. “We will have to leave this planet. We’re going to leave it, and it’s going to make this planet better.”

Bezos claimed that “this is not something that we may choose to do; this is something we must do,” calling the alternative “stasis.”

Despite his lofty ambitions, however, Bezos did concede that the exploration and eventual settlement of the moon “won’t be done by one company.” He noted a desire to collaborate with NASA or the European space agency, but said it will ultimately require “thousands of companies working in concert over many decades.”