This undated photo made available by Blue Origin in October 2021 shows, from left, Chris Boshuizen, William Shatner, Audrey Powers and Glen de Vries. Their launch scheduled for Wednesday, Oct. 13, 2021 will be Blue Origin’s second passenger flight, using the same capsule and rocket that Jeff Bezos used for his own trip three months earlier. (Blue Origin via AP)

William Shatner, 90, became the oldest person in space, eclipsing the previous record — set by a passenger on a similar jaunt on a Jeff Bezos spaceship in July — by eight years.

The passengers of the Blue Origin enter the capsule near Van Horn, Texas, Tuesday, July 20, 2021. (Blue Origin via AP)

Jeff Bezos blasted into space Tuesday on his rocket company’s first flight with people on board, becoming the second billionaire in just over a week to ride his own spacecraft.

On Sunday, July 11, 2021, Richard Branson became the first person to fly into space on a self-funded ship. (WTTW News via CNN)
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Virgin Galactic founder Richard Branson on Sunday became the first billionaire to ride his own rocket ship to space. But beyond being the ultimate joyride for billionaires, will commercial space travel take off as an industry accessible to the rest of us?

This combination of 2019 and 2016 file photos shows Jeff Bezos with a model of Blue Origin’s Blue Moon lunar lander in Washington, left, and Richard Branson with Virgin Galactic’s SpaceShipTwo space tourism rocket in Mojave, Calif. (AP Photo / Patrick Semansky, Mark J. Terrill)
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The lucrative, high-stakes chase for space tourists will unfold on the fringes of space — 55 miles to 66 miles up, pitting Virgin Galactic’s Richard Branson against the world’s richest man, Blue Origin’s Jeff Bezos.

In this June 6, 2019, file photo, Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos speaks at the Amazon re:MARS convention in Las Vegas. (AP Photo / John Locher, File)

Amazon founder Jeff Bezos stepped down as CEO on Monday, handing over the reins as the company navigates the challenges of a world fighting to emerge from the coronavirus pandemic.

In this Thursday, Sept. 19, 2019 file photo, Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos walks off stage after holding a news conference at the National Press Club in Washington to announce the Climate Pledge, setting a goal to meet the Paris Agreement 10 years early. (AP Photo / Pablo Martinez Monsivais)

The world’s richest man, Amazon founder Jeff Bezos, said in an Instagram post that he’ll start giving grants this summer to scientists, activists and nonprofits working to protect Earth.

An artist’s concept of an O’Neill cylinder. (Courtesy Blue Origin)

Could Jeff Bezos’ vision of giant rotating habitats one day support millions of people in space? We speak with two experts about humankind’s future in space. 

SpaceX's Falcon 9, left, and Blue Origin's New Shepard. (SpaceX / Flickr, Franke360 / Wikimedia)

Tech billionaire Elon Musk wants to create a colony on Mars. Assessing the challenges–and his chances of success.

SpaceX's Falcon 9, left, and Blue Origin's New Shepard. (SpaceX / Flickr, Franke360 / Wikimedia)

Last month, Elon Musk's SpaceX successfully landed one of its Falcon 9 rockets back onto its launch pad. In November, Jeff Bezos’ company Blue Origin landed its sub-orbital capsule New Shepard. Space enthusiast and Fermilab physicist Don Lincoln recently wrote a column on the Musk versus Bezos competition and shares his insights.

Joel Weisman and his panel of journalists take on changes in journalism in this web extra conversation. Was the sale of The Washington Post to Jeff Bezos a vanity purchase? And what changes are ahead at the Sun-Times and Crain’s? Watch the web extra video.

In a whirlwind week for newspapers, Amazon founder Jeff Bezos plans to buy The Washington Post for $250 million, while Boston Red Sox Owner John Henry has purchased The Boston Globe from the New York Times Company. We discuss the future of the newspaper industry in light of the sales.