Vincent Boland: Tycoon space race is boldly going where many have gone before

So far, the space missions of Bezos, Branson and Musk lack the poetics, significance or purpose of Aldrin and Armstrong’s, but it’s early days yet

Jeff Bezos holds the aviation glasses that belonged to Amelia Earhart as he gives a press conference about his flight into space. Picture: Getty

As Jeff Bezos blasted into space last week, we can be sure the significance of the date – July 20 – was not lost on him. On that day in 1969, Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin became the first humans to walk on the Moon. Fifty-two years later, the Apollo 11 mission that took them there and brought them back remains the greatest voyage of discovery ever made.

Their achievement made Armstrong, Aldrin and their ...