On 11 July 2021, British billionaire Sir Richard Branson successfully flew to space, beating his rival Jeff Bezos by a matter of days.

At 50,000 feet (15.2km), his Virgin Galactic spacecraft detached from the mothership and flew independently to 55 miles (88km) above the Earth, where Branson and his crew experienced around four minutes of microgravity. 

While Branson's flight was high enough for the crew to be classified as astronauts by NASA, this was contested by Bezos and his spaceflight company Blue Origin. When Blue Origin's spaceflight blasted off nine days later, they planned to pass the Kármán Line, which is 62 miles (100km) above Earth and more widely accepted as the boundary of space.

Read on to discover what happened next. All dollar amounts in US dollars, unless otherwise stated.