Since the 1960s and PanAm's ill-fated Moon Flights Club, commercial passenger flights to space have been a tantalizing dream, one that's expected to finally come to fruition within the next year. For its cover story this week, New York Magazine takes an in-depth look at the industry, including interviews with Buzz Aldrin, Richard Branson, and several others. In it, Virgin Galactic CEO George Whitesides discusses Branson's plans to bring his entire family, including his 88-year-old mother, to space with him, which will likely happen "by the end of the year," says Branson. Aldrin also discusses his criticism of fellow Apollo generation astronauts eager for the US to return to the moon while staunchly supporting plans to establish a permanent settlement on Mars, saying it will be “one of the biggest things humans have ever achieved.”