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Bezos' space company aims for passenger flights in 2018

Jeff Bezos' space company Blue Origin expects to begin crewed test flights of its reusable suborbital New Shepard vehicle next year and begin flying paying passengers in 2018. Bezos' remarks, made during the first ever media tour of the Blue Origin manufacturing facility, marked the first time the billionaire founder of Amazon.com had put a target date on the start of the commercial space flights Blue Origin is developing. The company expects to build six New Shepard vehicles, which are designed to autonomously fly six passengers to more than 62 miles (100 km) above Earth, high enough to experience a few minutes of weightlessness and see the planet set against the blackness of space. Blue Origin's first reusable rocket was lost in a test flight in April 2015, though the capsule parachuted safely back to the ground. A second ship has made two test flights, and Blue Origin is in the process of assembling its next two vehicles, which, for the first time, include windows for paying passengers.

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