As Jeff Bezos' Blue Origins rocket company and Sir Richard Branson's Virgin Galactic enterprises rush to perfect rockets for launching tourists into subspace at insane prices only the very rich can afford, a company called Elysium Space is gearing up to launch you off the planet Earth for about a 20th as much.

About 600 people have put down a deposit against a $200,000 ticket from Virgin Galactic on Branson's SpaceShipTwo for a trip into near space (62 miles or so up, where the sky is black and the Earth is small, but you're at best only on the edge of where space begins). Although no customers have made the trip yet, partly because SpaceShipTwo crashed last year, Branson has raised the price of the ticket to $250,000.

Bezos is developing his rocket in intense secrecy, but it will compete with Branson for space tourism. His nose cone capsule is designed to carry three or more people to that magical 100-kilometer altitude.