US approves Blue Origin licence for human space travel ahead of Bezos flight
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WASHINGTON • The US Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) has said it approved a Blue Origin licence to carry humans on the New Shepard launch system into space.
Former Amazon.com chief executive Jeff Bezos is set to fly to the edge of space on Blue Origin's maiden crewed voyage on July 20.
Blue Origin is authorised to carry humans while its FAA licence is valid through next month and is approved to conduct these missions from its Launch Site One facility in Texas, the agency confirmed on Monday.
Blue Origin was required to verify its launch vehicle's hardware and software worked safely during a test flight and the FAA confirmed it met regulatory requirements.
The flight will come a little over a week after its space-tourism rival Virgin Galactic successfully sent a crew including its founder, British billionaire Richard Branson, to the edge of space.
Virgin Galactic and Blue Origin, as well as space firm SpaceX founded by Tesla's Elon Musk, are working to usher in a new era of routine commercial civilian space travel in what has been popularised as the "billionaire space race".
Proving rocket travel is safe for the public is key to developing what Swiss-based investment bank UBS estimates will be a US$3 billion (S$4 billion) annual space tourism market in a decade.
REUTERS
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July 20
The day former Amazon.com chief executive Jeff Bezos is set to fly to the edge of space on Blue Origin's maiden crewed voyage.
$4b
Estimated annual value of the space tourism market in a decade.
