Earlier this year, Blue Origin indicated a tentative schedule of 2018 for the maiden voyage of its six-seater New Shepard vehicle. The space tourism company is toying with an idea of keeping the price of tickets at around $300,000 which is comparable to that of its competitor Virgin Galactic who are charging $250,000. This company is owned by Sir Richard Branson and it has already sold 650 tickets but it has not started operations.
Daily Mail UK reports that in the opinion of experts, the pricing of tickets will not make such a venture a viable business proposition for Bezos.
Aerospace analyst Marco Caceres estimates that with the proposed pricing, each launch will mean the loss of millions for the firm.
Blue Origin is a new entrant in space tourism
Jeff Bezos, the founder of Amazon, started Blue Origin in 2000. He wants to enter the market of space tourism and his six-seater New Shepard vehicle will carry tourists into space. Origin announced their plans of conducting test flights with passengers on board and then probably beginning to sell tickets next year. The vehicle will be a reusable one which will reduce costs and can accommodate up to six persons. People who fly could be tourists or researchers. They may even conduct some experiments.
Information available about the vehicle is sketchy.
But it will apparently be a launch rocket with a detachable capsule for the passengers. They can expect to fly up to an altitude of more than 62 miles above Earth. Other details, including pricing, have been kept under wraps. Daily Mail UK has indicated that Sir Richard Branson’s Virgin Galactic is a competitor and already tourists have lined up to enjoy a space journey with his firm.
A peep into Blue Origin’s project
CNBC has revealed a few details about Blue Origin and its vehicle New Shepard. It can take-off and land vertically, and during the trip, the tourist can experience a few minutes of weightlessness and also see the curvature of the planet. The pressurized capsule will have six observation windows which are larger in size to normal ones fitted in jetliners.
It will return to earth using parachutes.
The company has conducted test flights from its launch pad in Texas by using dummies instead of passengers. It is yet to test the escape system which will propel the crew to safety in case of any mishap.
Jeff Bezos said in May, that pricing is yet to be done but it could be in line with what Sir Richard Branson’s spaceship Virgin Galactic is charging. Space tourism will not come cheap and Bezos has to face stiff competition from the likes of not only Branson but also Elon Musk who wants to colonize Mars so that people can live on other planets. An insider source told Reuters that the price for a flight could range from $200,000 to $300,000.
