Want to go to infinite ? Well load down your bag , because private company Blue Origin says it will be ready to start launching blank space tourist by April 2019 .
That timeline was uncover by Bob Smith , CEO of Blue Origin , in a speech to the National Space Council in Virginia on Thursday – you know , the one where NASA ’s goalpost were movedyet again .
" Within the next 18 months we ’re get to be launching man into infinite , " he said , reportedCNN . " These wo n’t be astronauts … these will be everyday citizen . "
Blue Origin had actually in the beginning gasconade an earlier launching date of 2018 , withtest flightsin 2017 , so this comes as something of a time lag . If Elon Musk stick to his own docket , Blue Origin may be beat by SpaceX , who hope to set in motion two touristsaround the Moonby the end of 2018 .
Before they start launch regular people , Blue Origin is expect to complete some test flying with pilots and engineers next year . It will be launching citizenry on its reusable New Shepard Eruca vesicaria sativa , which hassuccessfully flownto space five times remote-controlled .
The flying will only go to sub - electron orbit , basically going up and straight back down . On top of the rocket will be a capsule containing the passengers , which will sort out from the roquette in distance . The space capsule will then land via chute , while the rocket will land back on the ground using its pusher .
These flights will last about 11 minutes , but it ’s unknown how much they will cost . If they are successful , it will be a pretty big slap in the case to companies like Virgin Galactic , who have been trying for class to kickstart space tourism but have been plagued by wait . A ticket on Virgin Galactic costs $ 250,000 .
Blue Origin has big plans , too . It ’s developing a Eruca vesicaria sativa calledNew Glennthat it wants to use to take hoi polloi into actual orbit . After that , it has plan for something called “ New Armstrong ” , which we do n’t know anything about yet . From its name , though , you could guess it ’s something to do with the Moon .
Will we really have at least two companies set in motion pay tourists to space by 2019 ? Who know . There are only so many time we can deal withempty promise . Let ’s hope this is n’t one of those .
