May 5th, 1961

Alan Shepard, the first American into space, flew a suborbital flight aboard Freedom 7. Apogee was 116.5 miles.

Keep that in mind when you read about the flights of billionaires Branson and Bezos. Yes, both are doing it with more people, but neither will end up going anywhere near as high as did the Mercury suborbital flights.

And of what real utility is any of this, other than stroking the egos of two very wealthy men? Branson is handing out astronaught wings, which are of as much value as the aviator wings that the airlines used to give to kids. Bezos's gizmo doesn't have a live pilot, so the capsule is truly "spam in a can".

Suborbital capsule flights? Done sixty years ago. Spaceplanes? NASA did that forty years ago, the Soviet Union 33 years ago, and both of those programs went into orbit.

Color me seriously unimpressed.