Jeff Bezos will attempt to fly to space Tuesday, launching onboard a rocket and capsule developed by Blue Origin, the Amazon founder's private space company, reports said.
Tuesday's launch will be Blue Origin's first manned mission on its New Shepard rocket. It will fly the world's richest man and three other passengers on an 11-minute 2,300-miles per hour excursion to suborbital space and back.
The mission will cap off weeks filled with rocket news and some drama among the world's billionaires who are allocating large portions of their fortune to rocket development.
New Shepard has launched more than a dozen automated test flights with no people on board. If successful, Bezos will make history for taking part in the first unmanned flight to the edge of space with a civilian crew.
Bezos and three other crew members will blast off from Blue Origin's Launch Site 1 near Van Horn, Texas, in a milestone mission for the space tourism company.
Bezos founded Blue Origin in 2000 with the objective of using a portion of his wealth to develop rocket technology for a variety of business purposes. Fellow billionaire and rocket company founder Richard Branson took his own trip last week.
"Ever since I was 5 years old, I have dreamed of traveling to space," ABC News quoted Bezos as saying in an Instagram post last month, announcing the flight.
"On July 20, I will take that journey with my brother. The greatest adventure, with my best friend," Bezos said.
Typically, New Shepard flies just above the 62-mile Kármán Line that international space authorities acknowledge as the boundary of space.
According to Space.com, the rocket will return autonomously to its launch site and land, with the crew capsule descending beneath a parachute.
