Mojave, California - Elon Musk has put down a $10,000 deposit on a suborbital flight with his competitor, Richard Branson's company Virgin Galactic.

Branson told The Sunday Times that his pal Elon Musk had put down a hefty deposit on a seat on a future Virgin Galactic Flight.

Technically, Musk and Branson are not direct competitors. Branson's successful sojourn to the edge of space proved his company's competency in space travel only as far as suborbital flights go.

Musk's SpaceX specializes in orbital launches, which means that instead of just going up to the edge of space and back down as Virgin Galactic does, SpaceX capsules actually orbit the entire earth, and stay in space for longer amounts of time.

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As far as space tourism goes, suborbital is pretty optimal. It requires less training for passengers because the flights are of shorter duration, and they are far more "affordable".

This week, science educator Emily Calandrelli clarified what a suborbital flight is in a viral TikTok video. She explains that Virgin Galactic makes use of an air launch system that has a specialized aircraft bring Branson's rocket up to 50,000 feet before separating. The rocket's thrusters to carry it to 282,000 feet (55 miles) above the earth's surface. Passengers get to experience micro-gravity for about three to five minutes.

A ticket on Branson's suborbital ride costs a hefty $250,000. However, to get to full orbit with SpaceX, passengers shell out about $55 million for the opportunity, and the costs to launch a Falcon 9 rocket and Dragon capsule from the ground far exceed Branson's method.

SpaceX capsules now regularly dock with the International Space Station, and the Falcon 9 rocket that gets them there is able to also return to land on a drone ship for reuse, so the price makes sense.