Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos isn’t the only Earth billionaire eyeing space travel, but he’s getting major buzz with plans to start shooting tourists into orbit in 2018.
“Safety is a much bigger priority than being the first commercial company to get tourists into space, Bezos said, while giving the world’s press a tour of Blue Origin’s research and development site near Seattle. Around 600 people are based at the site, a former Boeing airplane parts facility.”
Bezos was quoted as saying: “You can do the steps quickly, but you can’t skip any steps.”
Science Alert said Bezos specified 2018 as the year when he hoped Blue Origin space flights for tourists would take off for the first time (assuming all that testing in 2017 goes to plan).
He said “thousands” of people had expressed an interest in buying a ticket to leave Earth’s orbit, though his company isn’t taking bookings yet (unlike Virgin Galactic).
Eventually, Blue Origin plans to make its money back through these ticket sales and by selling its high-tech equipment to other companies, the site said.
Reaction from the home planet:
Jeff Bezos says he wants to fly into space “as soon as possible”
-.-! Srsly? WHO DOSN’T? https://t.co/ljVQJMD8TV
— Alex (@chemik3r) March 10, 2016
Join my Kickstarter to fire Bezos into space. All we need is a couple of cell towers for arms, & a really really long rubber band.
— minus the buddha (@banjolinblotto) March 10, 2016
5 things we learned about Jeff Bezos’ space company https://t.co/uULlTz42Ew
— TIME.com (@TIME) March 10, 2016
Jeff Bezos has a plan to zone Earth for residential use, and move industries to outer space. https://t.co/nQlxxmvwNZ pic.twitter.com/FxJz8vBcx0
— The Stranger (@strangerslog) March 9, 2016
“Space is really big…” says Jeff Bezos, showing why he’s a billionaire and I’m not https://t.co/SM9zv5Lqjn
— Rob Crilly (@robcrilly) March 9, 2016