Blue Origin Plans to Take Passengers to Space by 2018

Amazon founder Jeff Bezos has firmly committed to the commercial spaceflight market, revealing this week that his Blue Origin company will take passengers into space by 2018.

Billionaire Jeff Bezos has announced that his aerospace company, Blue Origin, is aiming to take paying passengers into orbit around the Earth as early as 2018.

The Amazon founder spoke to reporters during the inaugural media tour of the Blue Origin facilities in Kent, Wash., earlier this week. Bezos outlined his plans in detail during the tour, explaining that his company would, “… probably fly test pilots in 2017, and if we’re successful then I’d imagine putting paying astronauts on in 2018.”

Blue Origin is planning on building half a dozen New Shepard reusable rockets. These vessels are designed to fly six passengers more than 62 miles above the Earth’s surface, enough distance to allow them to feel the effects of weightlessness.

While the company’s first reusable rocket failed its test flight back in 2015, subsequent trials have been more promising, with a second vessel completing two successful runs. At the moment, Blue Origin is in the process of designing two additional New Shepard rockets. Reuters has reported that, to date, Bezos has personally invested more than $500 million in Blue Origin and that he would continue to financially back the endeavor as long as necessary.

Unsurprisingly, this novel form of flight is not going to come cheap, but Bezos has said that ticket prices for this experience will be competitive with what existing aerospace companies, such as Virgin Galactic and XCOR Aerospace, charge their passengers. A ticket with the former costs approximately $250,000 for a single flight while a ride with the latter is priced around $100,000.

Despite the hefty fees as well as the considerable technological and safety challenges, Bezos is positive that Blue Origin is not only going to succeed, but flourish.

“I’m optimistic it will be a healthy business,” he said.

[Photo: Blue Origin]