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Bezos speaks about the future plans of Blue Origin during an address to attendees at Access Intelligence’s Satellite 2017 conference in Washington, US, on March 7, 2017. Source: Reuters/Joshua Roberts
MAKING holiday plans to spend the summer out in space might not be as far into the future as you might think.
Earlier this month, Tesla CEO Elon Musk announced plans to send two people out on a trip around the moon in 2018.
Now, Amazon founder Jeff Bezos is aiming to tap into the space tourism industry to bring down the costs of space travel.
According to Bloomberg, Bezos said during the Satellite 2017 conference in Washington his aerospace company Blue Origin has seen its New Shepard capsule and booster fly over 100km into the air five times.
This animation imagines how Blue Origin’s new rocket will fly when it launches in the coming years https://t.co/F8ydGun0Sc pic.twitter.com/Ty5b10fygd
— CNN International (@cnni) March 8, 2017
He used the example of stunt pilots who flew people around in their planes in the 1920s, driving an entertainment industry into becoming what we know as modern air travel today.
He was quoted saying: “They [pilots] would go around and land in farmers’ fields and sell tickets. The entertainment industry can often be a driver of technology which then gets repurposed.
“That tourism mission, because we can fly it so frequently, is going to be a real driver of our technology.”
Bezos’ Blue Origin is beginning to gain some traction, starting with French satellite operator Eutelsat Communications SA, which signed on as the first client of the company’s New Glenn orbital rocket.
The New Glenn rocket is due to launch a Eutelsat satellite in 2021.
Blue Origin has entered the commercial satellite market as a competitor to Elon Musk’s Space Exploration Technologies Corp and France’s Arianespace SA. Both firms have been launching satellites for companies for a long period of time.
Both firms have been launching satellites for companies for a long time.
SEE ALSO: SpaceX to launch first private moon mission in 2018… for a hefty price
With this new clientele and Bezos’ laser-focus on space tourism, he is well on his way to becoming a force to be reckoned with in aerospace.
He said during the event: “Our goal – and we won’t stop until we achieve it – is to dramatically lower launch costs.
“It’s not going to be easy, it’s going to take time. But when we achieve that goal, it will grow the entire industry. We’ll reach a new equilibrium in this industry.”
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