Amazon’s Blue Origin planning human test space flights by 2017

PanARMENIAN.Net - Private space travel company Blue Origin expects its first test flights with people in 2017, company founder Jeff Bezos said Tuesday, March 8 during a tour of the venture's research and development site outside Seattle, the Associated Press reports.

And Bezos said thousands of people have expressed interest in eventually paying for a trip on a suborbital craft.

For now, the man who founded Amazon.com is spending some of the billions earned from the Seattle-based online retailer on high tech equipment and about 600 employees working in a former Boeing airplane parts facility. Bezos said he's convinced the company — a vision of his childhood dreams – will eventually be profitable.

The company isn't taking deposits yet, so it's unclear whether thousands of interested space travelers will translate into sales. Blue Origin, founded in 2000, has launched a ship twice, and it landed safely. The company plans to keep testing until its usefulness is done then switch to other ships being built to test human flight, AP said.

The real money will be made selling rocket engines to others planning to launch satellites and spaceships, Bezos said. United Launch Alliance has asked Blue Origin to build the engine for its new launch vehicle so it can stop relying on Russian-made engines.

Bezos, who still has his day job at Amazon, said he's deeply involved at Blue Origin and spends time in the Kent facility, about 17 miles south of Seattle. He enthusiastically shared technical details and explanations during a media tour and one engineer said he was as knowledgeable about the technology as anyone in the building.

"I only pursue things that I am passionate about," Bezos said. He spoke of dreaming of space travel and building rockets since he was 5.

He said he wasn't ready to share exactly how much he has invested in the space venture, saying just that all the high tech equipment and about 600 employees have added up to "a very significant number."

Bezos said he wasn't concerned about his competition to build the next generation of rocket engines because society will need lots of help moving industry and people off the planet.