On July 11, Richard Branson became the first billionaire to fly to the edge of space, beating his rival Amazon's Jeff Bezos by nine days in what the world has called a super-rich space race.

But while some claim the 70-year-old founder of Virgin Group hardly reached space, as its Virgin Galactic rocket ship flew to an altitude of about 85km, 14km short of the boundary of Earth's atmosphere, Bezos certainly did – flying 20km higher than Branson on Tuesday with his Blue Origin's New Shepard.

The two rocket ships that brought the two billionaires to space are quite different, most notably in shape. 

Bezos's New Shepard's capsule flew higher than Branson's SpaceShipTwo, reaching an altitude of around 107km before gently parachuting down back to Texas, from where the rocket had launched.

Two weeks ago, Branson's rocket ship took his six crew members (two pilots and four passengers including Virgin's founder) up to 86km above sea level.

New Shepard's trip to space was much faster – the entire journey lasted 10 minutes and 10 seconds, whereas SpaceShipTwo's trip lasted 90 minutes from launch to return.

But, despite the many differences in their journey to space, the two billionaires' experiences sounded pretty similar from their accounts. 

The "experience of a lifetime," said Branson after his trip. "Best day ever," Bezos exclaimed in his status update after his brief flight. 

Video animation: James Sandifer