My mum taught me to never give up and to reach for the stars. “I truly believe that space belongs to all of us,” he said. He is being replaced by Andy Jassy, the head of its successful cloud computing division, Amazon Web Services, who formally takes over as CEO on Monday.īezos will be on the debut flight of a Blue Origin rocket with his brother, Funk and a yet-to-be-named passenger who paid for a seat on the flight at a $28m charity auction last month.īranson said he was honoured to be able to help “ensure his business delivers a unique customer experience”. The 82-year-old, who was denied the chance to be an astronaut in the 1960s due to her gender, will be the oldest person ever to travel to space.īezos, who is stepping down as chief executive of Amazon on 5 July, is to blast off from west Texas on the 52nd anniversary of the Apollo 11 moon landing.Īmazon has not commented on speculation that its 57-year-old founder may have been asked to step back from his chief executive role to become executive chairman of the company, which has a market value of $1.7tn, before heading to space. Still, it will probably take some time to build up the space tourism industry, said Marco Caceres, a space industry analyst with Teal Group Corp., an aerospace and defense market analysis firm.The news came just hours after Bezos’s Blue Origin said the Amazon founder would be accompanied into space on 20 July by Wally Funk, a female aerospace pioneer. "We're approaching $100 million in private sales already," Bezos said during the news briefing. He added that interest skyrocketed after Blue Origin announced earlier this year that it would auction off a seat on a future flight. Bezos said the company is planning two more crewed launches this year, and eventually hopes to fly with more regularity. Both Branson’s and Bezos’ flights could open up a potentially lucrative new market for high-priced trips to the edge of space.īlue Origin hasn’t yet announced the cost of tickets on suborbital joyrides, but they are expected to cost several hundreds of thousands of dollars.
The New Shepard capsule flies above the Kármán line, while Virgin Galactic’s craft reached an altitude of around 53 miles during Branson’s flight, which fueled a budding rivalry between the companies.īezos’ flight was a critical milestone for Blue Origin and the commercial spaceflight industry, which until now has been dominated by Elon Musk’s SpaceX. The edge of space is often defined by the so-called Kármán line, at 62 miles. Both the rocket and capsule are also designed to be reusable.īlue Origin’s capsule is also designed to reach a higher altitude than Virgin Galactic’s vehicle. Blue Origin’s New Shepard rocket and capsule launch vertically and are designed to fly autonomously. Virgin Galactic’s rocket-powered Unity craft launches from a carrier airplane from an altitude of 50,000 feet and is flown by two onboard pilots. It's another thing to see with your own eyes how fragile it is."Īlthough Bezos’ suborbital experience was similar to that of Branson, Blue Origin and Virgin Galactic operate with different flight profiles. "It's one thing to recognize that intellectually. "It's actually incredibly thin," Bezos said about Earth's atmosphere.
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