Agreed, but your original 2nd paragraph made it seem like Blue is only doing New Shepherd. If Bezos wants a million people in space during his lifetime, he needs to be full speed ahead, “build it and they will come”, on Orbital Reef modules, the rumored 7 seat New Glenn orbital capsule, lunar surface resource extraction and refinement… Massive investments in transportation, science, manufacturing, and tourism in cislunar space.

Instead, I’m guessing the progression will be more like:

• Today: 10 people in orbit (the regular crew for ISS + Tiangong)
• Record: 19 people in orbit (regular crew, second Soyuz, stranded Starliner crew, Dragon free flyer)
• 5 years prediction: Break 20 (some mix of station crew handovers, Tiangong expansion, US commercial station/module, Gaganyaan, Mangzhou, Orion, Starship)
• 10 years prediction: Break 50