Jeff Bezos' Rocket Company Says You Can Buy Tickets to Space in 2019
We've heard the buzz that space travel for the general public is coming sooner than expected, and lately it's been feeling pretty real. Jeff Bezos' rocket company, Blue Origin, says it will soon be selling tickets to space – as early as 2019.
The company will offer suborbital flights on its New Shepard rocket, which was introduced in 2015. Although the rocket has been tested several times since its conception, it will be tested with humans on board "soon," according to Blue Origin Senior Vice President Rob Meyerson.
"We expect to start selling tickets in 2019,” Meyerson said last week at the Amazon Web Services Public Sector Summit in Washington, DC, according to Quartz.
There's still no price tag for the flight as of right now, but we're assuming the cost will be a little out of this world, considering what competitors are projecting. SpaceX, Elon Musk's company, is hinting at tens of millions of dollars for the experience of a lifetime. Don't worry though, that cost includes variables beyond just a seat on a rocket (i.e., training, emergency services and air, to name a few).
Richard Branson's Virgin Galactic, which he says is about two or three tests away from flying its first passengers to space, will be a little bit more affordable at an estimated $250,000 per ticket.
Regardless of the steep projected price to hop on a rocket out of the planet, the industry is getting ready for space tourists. The first luxury hotel in outer space is said to be opening in 2022, and you probably guessed correctly that it won't be cheap either.
