Blue Origin is a space tourism company that intends to deliver sub-orbital space flights for paying customers in the near future. With billionaire backing and multiple successful test flights, it is also one of the most promising options for customers hoping to experience space travel in the years ahead. In this article, you will learn more about space tourism, Blue Origin, the company’s history, and its aims for the future.

Table of Contents:

What is Space Tourism?

‘Space tourism’ is a term used to describe traveling into space for leisure purposes. Also known as commercial space flight, or citizen space exploration, the concept includes sub-orbital and orbital space travel and travel beyond Earth orbit. To date, space tourism has only been successfully performed by the Russian Space Agency, but several private companies, including Blue Origin, hope to change that.

For more information about Space Tourism, read the article “Space Tourism: 5 Space Companies That Will Make You An Astronaut”.

What is Blue Origin?

Blue Origin is an aerospace business primarily focused on delivering sub-orbital space flights for tourism purposes, albeit to provide orbital space flight too, eventually. The company is based in Kent, Washington, and was founded in 2000 by Jeff Bezos, the CEO of Amazon.

So far, the main space tourism proposal put forward by Blue Origin is for short-duration trips to space and back. Tourists will be sent up in the company’s New Shepard vertical take-off rocket. A passenger capsule will be at the rocket’s tip, which can seat up to six people at a time.

In terms of the capsule itself, Blue Origin intends to provide extremely large windows and reclining seats. Once in space, paying customers will experience stunning views of the Earth and the feeling of weightlessness.

Blue Origin’s employees have performed numerous successful test flights in recent years, and the business hopes to offer reliable space travel for paying customers in the early to mid-2020s.

Video: Blue Origin – The Road to Space

 

Video: Blue Origin – Millions of People Living and Working in Space

 

What Does a Blue Origin Flight Cost?

As with other space tourism companies, Blue Origin is expected to initially sell most of its tickets to rich business owners, celebrities, and other tourists with large amounts of money to spare. In fact, sources suggest the initial Blue Origin space flight cost will amount to between $200,000 and $300,000 per person.

However, unlike Virgin Galactic and several other rivals, the company has no active waiting list for its space travel experiences, and no official pricing strategy has been publicly announced.

4 Promising Space Tourism Alternatives

1. Virgin Galactic

Blue Origin’s main rival, Virgin Galactic, is owned by Richard Branson and is arguably the best-known company proposing regular space tourism in the coming years. The Virgin Galactic offering is geared towards sub-orbital space flight, and the company successfully performed a manned test flight into outer space in 2018. You can read more detailed information about Virgin Galactic in the article “Virgin Galactic: Information About Virgin Space Flights”.

2. Orion Span

Orion Span is an American space tourism company, which is proposing something rather different. Its planned Aurora Space Station would effectively function as a space hotel, taking the concept beyond short-duration space travel and allowing customers to enjoy overnight stays in space. You can read more detailed information about Origin Span in the article “Orion Span: Information About Orion Span Space Hotel”.

3. SpaceX

Owned by Elon Musk, the SpaceX company has already performed multiple successful space flights and aims to provide regular space travel for paying customers. Musk is especially keen on the idea of providing trips to the moon and back, while in the longer term, SpaceX intends to offer flights to Mars as well. You can read more detailed information about SpaceX in the article “SpaceX Information: Rockets, Spacecrafts and Spaceflights”.

4. The Boeing Company

Finally, The Boeing Company has a working agreement with NASA, related to producing crew vehicles intended for space travel. However, this agreement has also brought Boeing into the space tourism industry, as the company secured the right to sell seats on some of those crew vehicles to paying customers.

Blue Origin and Other Companies Offering Space Flight Tickets

Blue Origin currently ranks among the front runners for aerospace companies hoping to sell commercial space flight tickets. As we eagerly await a time when regular space tourism becomes a reality, one thing you may want to look into is the process of booking tickets on a space flight.

Read our “Space Flight: How to Book a Ticket into Space” article for more information on Blue Origin and various other companies, along with details on how to book tickets or join a waiting list.

Fly With Blue Origin and Stay in a Space Hotel

With the financial might of Jeff Bezos behind the company, Blue Origin is one of the leading aerospace companies looking to offer commercial space travel. A related area that is generating a lot of interest is that of space hotels, and once people can book flights into space, it stands to reason that overnight stays will follow.

Check out “Space Hotel: How to Book a Hotel in Space” for information on some of the space hotel proposals that already exist and details on how you can book your stay in this new form of accommodation already.

Blue Origin and the Space Industry As a Whole

While Blue Origin has become one of the leading players in the space industry, it is worth taking the time to understand more about the industry. In particular, it can be useful to gain contextual information about how the sector has evolved and who the other major industry players are.

To learn more about the space industry, its evolution through time, the emergence of space tourism, and some other aerospace companies, read “Space Industry: The No. 1 Guide into Space!”

Before Blue Origin: The World’s First Space Tourist

Blue Origin is one of the leading private enterprises looking to commercialize space tourism, but the history of space tourism as a concept goes back to 2001. The American businessman, Dennis Tito, was determined to pay to travel to space, and after being rejected by NASA, he convinced the Russian Space Agency to take him.

To learn more about Dennis Tito and the trip that earned him the status as the first space tourist in the world, read the “Space Tourist: Who Was the First Tourist in Space?” article.

Blue Origin is one of the main private companies looking to deliver commercial space flight – or ‘space tourism’ – in the near future. The organization has shown great promise through multiple successful test flights. Many experts regard it as one of the most likely companies to deliver on the aim of regularly putting paying customers in space.

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This article is written by:

Martijn Barten

Hi, I am Martijn Barten, founder of Revfine.com. With 20 years of experience in the hospitality industry, I specialize in optimizing revenue by combining revenue management with marketing strategies. I have successfully developed, implemented, and managed revenue management and marketing strategies for individual properties and multi-property portfolios.