Blue Origin, the space tourism and aerospace manufacturing firm of Amazon founder Jess Bezos, says that if you want to take a ride into space aboard its New Shepard space vehicle, be prepared to fork over $300,000 for the thrill.
That's high-end. The low end is $200,000, and that's still too much for the average American -- but not for millionaires and billionaires like Bezos (the richest man in the world).
This price will change since it hasn't been confirmed by Blue Origin, none of whose executives wanted to talk to media about it when the news broke. Bezos, however, said in May that ticket prices hadn't yet been decided.
But an anonymous Blue Origin executive with first-hand knowledge of the pricing plan said the company will start selling tickets ranging from $200,000 to $300,000. Another executive said tickets will cost a minimum of $200,000.
The New Shepard is designed to autonomously fly six passengers more than 100 km above Earth into suborbital space. These high-flying and high-spending space tourists will experience a few minutes of weightlessness and see the curvature of the planet from six gigantic observation windows before New Shepard parachutes back to Earth.
Blue Origin has completed eight test flights of the New Shepard from its launch facility in Texas. None of these flights have been manned, however. Two flights included a test dummy named "Mannequin Skywalker."
The first test in space of New Shepard's capsule escape system will be in August.
Blue Origin is working towards making civilian space flight an important niche in the global space economy, alongside satellite services and government exploration projects.
Analysts estimate that each flight of New Shepard might cost about $10 million. With six passengers per trip, this means the loss of millions of dollars per launch -- initially. New Shepard's first passengers will likely to include Blue Origin own employees.
