The rocket’s sole mission is to take tourists to space, who would travel inside a sleek, white capsule atop the vehicle. Jeff started building Blue Origin in 2000, we started building Virgin Galactic in 2004 & now both are opening up access to Space - how extraordinary! Watch this space…'īlue Origin, founded in 2000, touts itself as means to provide cheaper access to space through the use of reusable rockets, specifically the New Shepard that has flown 15 times. He tweeted: ' Many congratulations to & his brother Mark on announcing spaceflight plans. In sending tourists to space, Bezos has beaten Richard Branson and Elon Musk and their firms, Virgin Galactic and SpaceX to the punch.īranson congratulated Bezos on the news, describing how their two firms are 'opening up access to space.' Washington state-based Blue Origin is largely self funded by Bezos, who has been selling over $1 billion worth of stock in Amazon per year to fund the company. The six passengers will spend at least 10 minutes floating in zero gravity inside the capsule during the suborbital sightseeing trip.īlue Origin named the New Shepard program after astronaut Alan Shepard, who was the first American to fly into space exactly 60 years ago. Jude Children's Research Hospital in Tennessee. The other three passengers on the New Shephard flight are Sian Proctor, a community college educator in Arizona, Chris Sembroski, a former Air Force missileman from Washington, and Hayley Arceneaux, a physician assistant at St. However, Branson, who founded Virgin Galactic Holdings Inc, may attempt to steal Bezos' thunder by joining a possible test flight to the edge of space over the July 4 weekend aboard Virgin's VSS Unity spaceplane, one person familiar with the matter said. While the funds raised from the event are earmarked for charity, Blue Origin is hoping to galvanize enthusiasm for its nascent suborbital tourism business. EDT (1700 GMT), and within four minutes bids reached beyond $20 million. The live auction capping the process began on Saturday at 1 p.m. It changes your relationship with this planet, with humanity,' Bezos said in a video before the final bidding took place, adding that his brother Mark will join him on the trip.Īs the month-long bidding process leading up to the live auction closed on Thursday, the winning figure stood at $4.8 million, fueled by entries from more than 6,000 people from at least 143 countries.
'To see the earth from space, changes you. Bezos addresses the media about the New Shepard rocket booster and Crew Capsule mockup at the 33rd Space Symposium in Colorado Springs in 2017
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