ilan
06-24-2018, 02:38 PM
Blue Origin Plans to Start Selling Suborbital Spaceflight Tickets Next Year
Jeff Foust, SpaceNews Writer | June 24, 2018 08:24am ET
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OVpTnEB2TSg
WASHINGTON — Blue Origin expects to start flying people on its New Shepard suborbital vehicle "soon" and start selling tickets for commercial flights next year, a company executive said June 19.
Speaking at the Amazon Web Services Public Sector Summit here, as the keynote of a half-day track on earth and space applications, Blue Origin Senior Vice President Rob Meyerson offered a few updates on the development of the company's suborbital vehicle.
"We plan to start flying our first test passengers soon," he said after showing a video of a previous New Shepard flight at the company's West Texas test site. All of the New Shepard flights to date have been without people on board, but the company has said in the past it would fly its personnel on the vehicle in later tests.
He also offered a timetable for selling tickets. "We expect to start selling tickets in 2019," he said, but did not disclose a price.
Meyerson, the longtime president of Blue Origin, moved into his current position earlier this year to lead a new advanced development programs business within the company, working on concepts like the Blue Moon lunar lander. "We believe that setting up colonies on the moon is the next logical step towards exploring Mars and beyond," he said.
"Our vision is millions of people living and working in space, and we accept there are many ways to get there," he said. "The task of defining the path forward is what we're doing now."
Jeff Foust, SpaceNews Writer | June 24, 2018 08:24am ET
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OVpTnEB2TSg
WASHINGTON — Blue Origin expects to start flying people on its New Shepard suborbital vehicle "soon" and start selling tickets for commercial flights next year, a company executive said June 19.
Speaking at the Amazon Web Services Public Sector Summit here, as the keynote of a half-day track on earth and space applications, Blue Origin Senior Vice President Rob Meyerson offered a few updates on the development of the company's suborbital vehicle.
"We plan to start flying our first test passengers soon," he said after showing a video of a previous New Shepard flight at the company's West Texas test site. All of the New Shepard flights to date have been without people on board, but the company has said in the past it would fly its personnel on the vehicle in later tests.
He also offered a timetable for selling tickets. "We expect to start selling tickets in 2019," he said, but did not disclose a price.
Meyerson, the longtime president of Blue Origin, moved into his current position earlier this year to lead a new advanced development programs business within the company, working on concepts like the Blue Moon lunar lander. "We believe that setting up colonies on the moon is the next logical step towards exploring Mars and beyond," he said.
"Our vision is millions of people living and working in space, and we accept there are many ways to get there," he said. "The task of defining the path forward is what we're doing now."