Jeff Bezos’ space venture Blue Origin said in a video released Thursday it will soon begin selling tickets for rides on its space tourism rocket called New Shepard.
“Guys, how exciting is this – come on!” Bezos said in the video.
Blue Origin did not reveal how much tickets will cost, only saying that more details will come on May 5 to those who submit their name and email on a form on the company’s website.
“Sign up to learn how you can buy the very first seat on New Shepard,” according to the company’s website.
The announcement’s video features Bezos going out to the capsule of New Shepard after the company’s test flight earlier this month. It shows him driving across the Texas desert, the remote location of the New Shepard launch facility – notably at the wheel of a Rivian R1T electric truck, which is emblazoned with Blue Origin’s signature feather.
New Shepard is designed to carrying as many as six people at a time on a ride past the edge of space, with the capsules on previous test flights reaching an altitude of more than 340,000 feet (or more than 100 km). The capsule, which has massive windows to give passengers a view, spends as much as 10 minutes in zero gravity before returning to Earth.
The rocket launches vertically, with the booster detaching and returning to land at a concrete pad nearby. The capsule’s return is slowed down by a set of parachutes, before softly landing in the desert.
Shares of Virgin Galactic fell more than 3% after Blue Origin posted its video, as Bezos’ company will compete with Sir Richard Branson’s in the niche space sector of suborbital tourism.
To date, Virgin Galactic has sold tickets to about 600 passengers at a price between $200,000 and $250,000 each, although the company expects it could increase its prices substantially for the first commercial flights. In the past, Bezos has said Blue Origin will price New Shepard flights similarly to its competitors.
Virgin Galactic’s leadership has previously emphasized it expects demand for space tourism flights to outpace supply in the next decade, leaving enough room for both of the companies to succeed.
Source: Business - cnbc.com
