SEATTLE/WASHINGTON – The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) authorized Blue Origin’s application to fly humans into space using the New Shepard launch system on Monday. On July 20, former Amazon.com CEO Jeff Bezos will fly to the edge of space on Blue Origin’s first crewed mission.
Blue Origin’s FAA license is active through August, and the company is authorized to execute these missions from its Launch Site One facility in Texas, according to the agency.
During a test flight, Blue Origin was needed to verify that its launch vehicle’s hardware and software functioned safely, and the FAA validated that it met legal standards.
Blue Origin’s journey will take place just over a week after Virgin Galactic, a space tourism rival, successfully carried a crew to the edge of space, including its founder, British billionaire Richard Branson.
In what has become known as the “billionaire space race,” Virgin Galactic and Blue Origin, as well as rival billionaire Elon Musk’s space company, are seeking to usher in a new age of routine commercial civilian space flight.
Developing what UBS, a Swiss investment bank, predicts could be a US$3 billion yearly space tourism sector in a decade would require proving rocket flight is safe for the general population./n
