Hacker News has a huge boner for Elon Musk. They forget that others beat Musk and are well known for beating Musk (re: spaceships).

Only in the most literal sense they could be called spaceships. They are no more spaceships than a swimming suit is a boat.

Those two sentences are contradictory. A swimming suit is not a boat, especially in "the most literal sense."

A suborbital manned spacecraft, OTOH, is a spaceship in every sense. (It's neither an orbital spaceship nor, say, an interplanetary spaceship, but it's definitely a spaceship.)

Saying they aren't is like saying a riverboat isn't a boat because it's not ocean-going.

A suborbital spaceship is analogous to a boat that can go into waters, just as long as they are knee-deep.

It can touch space, but a ship is not defined by its ability to touch the water.

Does Richard Branson have passenger vehicles that can achieve interplanetary flight?

No, but then neither does Musk, or anyone else, individual, corporate, or government.

Not even get into orbit.

No one does.

Suborbital flight is a stretch, but I agree Branson seems to be an inspiration for Zaphod's movie depiction.