I hate to sound like a space snob, but I'm not very impressed with Blue Origin's suborbital flights, even less so with Virgin Galactic's method, they seem so 1960's to me. Now SpaceX, with true orbital insertion, even higher than the ISS and a trip that last days instead of minutes is where it's at. SpaceX's technology is so far ahead of the other two that if I could afford to go, which I cannot, SpaceX is where I'd book my flight.
If you want a ride, yes, SpaceX is the way to go. Want shit done, SpaceX is there. I can respect that.
I'm biased towards SSTO VTVLs and Blue Origin is seemingly going that route, and that excites me, ya know?
SSTO VTVLs are exactly what we need for any real manned exploratory missions. Think shuttles, basically. Go up, go down, maybe fill up with ISRU (and if we get more potent fuels, like metastable metallic hydrogen, even that may not be necessary), go up, go down. And what rich person wouldn't want to say, 'I actually own a rocket' in the most common sense of the word? Come to my island, hop on, lets loop around, or dock at the space hotel, lets get back to my pacific island, Mr/Mrs Bond.
This is a scenario coming off the pages as we speak. Far slower than we anticipated, sure, but coming about. Ever since DC-X and the X-33, I've been into it. And both Spaceship and New Sheperd, slowly, in their own ways, keep pushing that field, even if they're TSTOs and/or Suborbital.
