Space Tourism: Jeff Bezos's Blue Origin To Soon Start Selling Seats On Its New Shepherd Spacecraft

Jeff Bezos, founder of Amazon and aerospace company Blue Origin, tweeted a video teasing tickets for first seats on its space tourism rocket -- New Shepard.

The video features Bezos wearing a cowboy-hat and driving an electric Rivian truck through the Texas desert right after Blue Origin's 15th New Shepard test flight on 14 April.

"Alright here we go," said Bezos while driving the truck.

"Guys, how exciting is this, c'mon," he added, as he stepped out of the truck to inspect the just landed crew capsule, under parachutes.

"It's time. You can buy the very first seat on #NewShepard. Sign up to learn how at http://blueorigin.com," the space company shared in a tweet on Thursday, along with the video. "Details coming May 5th. #GradatimFerociter," it added.

On 14 April, Blue Origin conducted an "astronaut rehearsal" during the successful 15th uncrewed test flight of the company's reusable suborbital rocket New Shepard, dubbed NS-15.

Blue Origin's tweet also included a link to an application on its website that urged visitors to "SIGN UP TO LEARN HOW YOU CAN BUY THE VERY FIRST SEAT ON NEW SHEPARD, asking for a full name, email, and phone number. An announcement will come 5 May, the Verge reported.

The five-story-tall New Shepard rocket is designed to launch a crew capsule with seats for six roughly 340,000 feet into the sky toward the edge of space. Paying tourists can experience a few minutes of weightlessness in microgravity and witness super high-altitude views of Earth.

After separating from the crew capsule midair, the rocket booster returns for a vertical landing, and minutes later the crew capsule also descends back to land under a set of parachutes for a soft touchdown, the report said.

New Shepard's last uncrewed test flight was "a verification step for the vehicle and operations prior to flying astronauts," Blue Origin said at the time, dropping subtle hints that its next flight might include astronauts.

(This story has been published from a wire agency feed without modifications to the text. Only the headline has been changed.)