Jeff Bezos’s Blue Origin plans space sightseeing jaunt for July
Blue Origin, Jeff Bezos’s rocket company, aims to launch its first suborbital sightseeing trip on its New Shepard spacecraft on 20 July, a moment that could usher in an era of private commercial space travel.
Blue Origin also said it would offer one seat on the first flight to the winning bidder of a five-week online auction, the proceeds of which will be donated to the space firm’s foundation.
The New Shepard rocket-and-capsule combo is designed to autonomously fly six passengers more than 62 miles (100km) above Earth into suborbital space, high enough to experience a few minutes of weightlessness and see the curvature of the planet before the pressurised capsule returns to Earth under parachutes.
The capsule features six observation windows, which, according to Blue Origin, are nearly three times as tall as those on a Boeing 747 jetliner and the largest ever used in space.
“The view will be spectacular,” said Ariane Cornell, Blue Origin’s director of astronaut sales.
After its first flight, Cornell said Blue Origin would have “a couple more” crewed flights before the end of the year. She declined to disclose details of the ticket price, which has been a closely guarded secret for years.
Reuters reported in 2018 that Blue Origin was planning to charge passengers at least $200,000 for the ride, based on an appraisal of rival plans from Richard Branson’s Virgin Galactic and other considerations, although the company’s stragegy may have changed.
Wednesday’s announcement follows years of testing and development work that has included delays.
Cornell said Blue Origin would love to increase the frequency of its tourist space flights and add launch locations, possibly outside the US, depending on demand. For July’s flight, the reusable New Shepard booster will launch and land in west Texas.
Celebrities and the uber-rich appear to be the core market for space tourist jaunts, at least initially. Cornell told reporters the most likely candidates would be “very clear on our radar”.
Only 569 people have ever been into space, she said, adding “we’re about to change that dramatically”. But she declined to say when – or if – Bezos, a lifelong space enthusiast and currently the world’s richest person, will take a trip on New Shepard.
Virgin Galactic also aims to fly private customers in early 2022, after a first flight with Branson onboard later this year. Its zero-gravity experience is anchored by its SpaceShipTwo plane, and the company has plans to offer point-to-point travel between far-flung cities at near-space altitudes.
Virgin says it will charge more than $250,000 for new reservations but has not announced final pricing. Sales will reopen after Branson’s flight.
Meanwhile, a college science professor and an aerospace data analyst are among a four-member crew for a launch into orbit planned later this year by Elon Musk’s SpaceX, part of a charity drive billed as the first all-civilian spaceflight in history.
Blue Origin has fallen far behind SpaceX on orbital transportation, and lost out to SpaceX and United Launch Alliance on billions of dollars’ worth of US national security launch contracts that begin in 2022.
But Blue Origin’s space tourism announcement provides the Amazon founder with momentum while it protests SpaceX’s $2.9bn contract under Nasa’s high-profile programme to return Americans to the moon in coming years.
Regulatory filings revealed Bezos sold Amazon shares worth about $2bn this week as a part of an arranged trading plan. Bezos, who will step down as Amazon chief executive in a few months, has been unloading shares of the company he founded and has also said he would sell shares worth $1bn to fund Blue Origin projects.