Jeff Bezos' Blue Origin will soon begin selling tickets for rides on its space tourism rocket.
Blue Origin, Jeff Bezos' space company, will start selling tickets for space tours on its New Shepard rocket soon.
On Thursday, the company released a video announcing its plans and added a countdown clock to its website. The countdown to May 5, when Blue Origin will share more details about the drives, has begun.
People also can check in on Blue Origin's website to urge more details about the space tours.
The company has not yet announced ticket prices, but Sir Richard Branson's space tourism company, Virgin Galactic, has sold about 600 tickets for about $250,000 each. Bezos has previously stated that tickets for Blue Origin's New Shepard tourism rocket would be competitive with other space-tourism companies.
Bezos is seen in the video visiting the New Shepard capsule after the company's most recent test flight in April.
"How much fun is this, guys?" In a video, Jeff Bezos said, "It's time."
In the video, Bezos can also be seen riding around the Texas launch site in a Rivian electric truck with the Blue Origin logo emblazoned on it.
According to the company's website, the 11-minute New Shepard space tour will launch from a 60-foot-high rocket in the West Texas desert, giving visitors a taste of space at an altitude of over 340,000 feet. Customers will look out the windows to get a complete view of space, & the capsule can remain in zero gravity for several minutes before returning to Earth. The New Shepard is meant to hold six people.
Blue Origin, which was created by Jeff Bezos in 2000, is focused on using recycled rocket-launch materials to make access to space more cost efficient and secure.
SpaceX, the company founded by Tesla CEO Elon Musk, has long been a competitor. When it comes to making space more available, as well as building a future for humanity beyond Earth, the two organisations share common objectives.
Earlier this month, SpaceX won a $2.9 billion NASA contract to help the agency return to the moon, defeating Blue Origin. Blue Origin lodged a protest against SpaceX receiving the contract on Tuesday, calling NASA's decision "flawed" and "unfair."
