Which Company Will Launch You Into Space?

Deep in the is a futuristic-looking compound that will soon be abuzz with rocketships and first-time astronauts. No, this isn’t a secret NASA training facility or the set to the sequel of Gravity. It’s Spaceport America, the new home of Virgin Galactic, one of many commercial space travel companies striving to open up the final frontier to the public.

Space travel has long been the province of government agencies like NASA, but in recent years, have put somewhat of a damper on professional space exploration.

That's where private space travel companies come in.

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With promises ranging from 90-minute jaunts into sub-orbit to establishing a mars colony, companies like Virgin Galactic and competitor SpaceX seem to be on the fast track to making space tourism a reality.

Surprisingly, it's with NASA's hefty encouragement.Since 2009, NASA has been soliciting proposals from commercial companies that want to send humans into orbit, and has awarded more than a billion dollars of development contracts to a select few. The idea is that private companies will find ways to provide services at a lower cost, which frees NASA up for the alien-life hunting, complex-rover-dropping missions that they do best.

Here, we look at five of the most interesting commercial space travel companies who might one day issue your cosmic boarding pass.

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1. Virgin Galactic

There seems little in the way of adventuring that billionaire business tycoon Sir Richard Branson of the Virgin Group hasn't inserted his blond mane into, so space tourism was a given. In fact, Branson was one of the first to stake a claim in the space tourism biz way back in 2004.

eventually hopes to launch full orbital space flightsthat take amateur astronauts around the Earth and even aroundthe moon, but that might be . In the meantime, the company will launch its first "sub-orbital" flights in 2014, sending space tourists highenough above the earth's atmosphere to just skim the edge of space, but not achieve orbit.

So far, morer 600 people – including Justin Bieber, Katy Perry, AshtonKutcher, Tom Hanks andBrangelina – have signed up for flights aboard Virgin Galactic's rocket plane SpaceShipTwo, even though the trip comes with a hefty price tag.

What does the $250,000 ticket get you? A 90-minute, straight-shot into the atmospherethat will allow the privileged few to see our blue marble from above and experience a few minutes of weightlessness.

Unfortunately, at least for now, its pretty clear that space tourism will be a rich man's endeavor, but the company hopes that the higher the demand, the .

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2. SpaceX (Space Exploration Technologies)

Let's just get this out in the open: founder and billionaire inventorElon Musk wants to build a 80,000-person colony on Mars.

That would sound pretty preposterous if the company didn't have the lofty distinction of being thefirst commercial spacecraft in history to deliver cargo to the International Space Station and make it back in one piece, among other milestones. One of the most important selling points forMuskis thatSpaceXcrafts arereusable – others are designed to disintegrate inthe atmosphere – which categorically make them.

Next up? In 2014, the company plans to start ending humans into sub-orbit aboard their Dragon capsule, the same craft that visited the ISS earlier this year.

Mars domination aside, NASA seems to agree that SpaceX is one of the best contenders in the commercial space industry. On Dec. 13, NASA announced plans to lease historic launch pad 39A at the Kennedy Space Centerto the company after it Amazon.com's commercial space venture Blue Origin.

SpaceXis also one of three selected for NASA's (CCiCap) initiative, a competition to see which private company can build a manned commercial spacecraft first. The $440 million dollar development contract sure doesn't hurt their chances.

But a Mars colony? We'll just wait and see.

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3. Blue Origin

Before Amazon.com founder Jeff Bezos was making billions off of e-commerce, the 18-year-old was dreaming about building space hotels, amusement parks and colonies in Earth's orbit , the Washington Post recently reported. As it turns out, he's secretly been working to make that dream a reality since 2000.

His commercial space venture, , has been shrouded in mystery since they company first came on the radar after Bezos bought a huge amount of land in West Texas in 2003 for a private launch site.

What we do know is that the company's for commercial space flightthat seems in line with Amazon's business model: sub-orbital flight that is available , and is cheap and efficient. The company claims that Blue Origin's spacecraft, the New Shepherd, can blast off vertically and be available at a moment's notice.

Unlike other commercial companies in the space race, Blue Origin has kept mum on when their space flights might start. Just last week, the company lost a bid to lease Launch Complex39A from NASA to competitor SpaceX. Still, here's hopingthat in the not-so-distant-future, you'll be able to add a spaceflight to your Amazon.com wishlist.

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4. Sierra Nevada Corporation

No, this isn't the same company that makes tasty craft brews, but a commercial technology company contracted with NASA and another competitor in the agency'sCCiCapinitiative.

The paints itselfasone of the more practicalof the bunch, saying that its major goal is to provide NASA with a to take crew and cargo back and forth to the International Space Station.

So it's not a Mars colony, butSNCdoes get cool points for the design of their spacecraft, theDream Chaser Space System. The craft looks like a mini Space Shuttle, can carry 7 passengers, and is the only spacecraft intheworld that can land on a regular airport runway. Just Imagine catching a cab to the nearest airport and blasting off into space.

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5. Boeing

Aerospace industrygiant is sticking with the tried and true in their space craft design: their CST 100 capsule looks like a slick, modernized version of thefamed Apollo space craft. One of only three private companies to get awarded grant money through NASA's CCiCapinitiative, Boeing is concentrating on the practical.

Their primary goal is to build a craft that can transport astronauts and crew to and from the ISS, but the company says that they are strategizing about how to proceed with commercial space travel beyond sub-orbit in the future.

For Boeing, slow and steady seems to be the plan, but the company has left some room for creative thinking.They are currently partnered with Nevada-based Bigelow Aerospace, which is developing commercially operated .

Wait ... so a moonwalk ON the moon? Sign us up.

MORE ON WEATHER.COM: Vintage NASA Photos

Liftoff of Space Shuttle Endeavour

Billows of smoke and steam infused with the fiery light from space shuttle Endeavour's launch on the STS-127 mission fill NASA Kennedy Space Center's Launch Pad 39A. Endeavour lifted off on the mission's sixth launch attempt, on July 15, 2009 at 6:03 p.m. EDT.