July has been a completely wild month for the commercial spaceflight industry. In the span of just over a week, we saw both Richard Branson's Virgin Galactic and Jeff Bezos's Blue Origin successfully launch their respective founders to the edge of space.

While it is easy to view these suborbital hops as the ultimate billionaire joyrides, it undeniably marks a major turning point. Reusable suborbital vehicles are now operational and carrying civilians.

Whatever your thoughts on the economics of it all, the engineering is incredibly impressive, and the door to space is slowly but surely being nudged open for non-professional astronauts.