Between the few private companies that can claim to send tourists into space, competition is fierce.
Blue Origin has figured out how to make its first manned flight the event everyone is talking about: send your boss!
Jeff Bezos announced Monday, on his Instagram account, that he would be one of three passengers to fly on July 20 in the New Shephard rocket.
“I want to go on this flight because it's something I've wanted to do all my life.
It's an adventure, ”he explains in a video.
But one Bezos can hide another since the multibillionaire explains having proposed to Mark Bezos, his brother to travel ... The third seat will be for the winner of an auction which amounted to 2.8 million Monday. dollars (approximately 2.3 million euros), a “ticket” much more expensive than that which future tourists will have to pay when take-offs from New Shephard have become routine: around 200,000 dollars, all the same.
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A dream ... and a big hit
On July 20, the trip will last only ten minutes in total. The rocket will take off vertically and the capsule housing the passengers at its top will separate from it at about 75 km in height, continuing its trajectory until exceeding 100 km in altitude: the border of space. The Bezos brothers and the winner of the auction will then be able to float in zero gravity for a few minutes. At the same time, the rocket will descend to land gently on a runway, still vertical. Then the capsule will itself begin a free fall to return to Earth. Three large parachutes and retro rockets will slow it down before landing, in a desert in West Texas.
"It will be very visible, very general public, and by going there, it gives a lot of visibility to its program", decrypts Xavier Pasco, director of the Foundation for strategic research, who obviously sees behind this approach much more than a dream kid. “Jeff Bezos, with Blue Origin, has always posed as a player closer to the traditional space industry, more reassuring than Elon Musk, his competitor in the private launch market ... But it is clear that these In recent years, Space X has taken a considerable lead in terms of technology, reliability, visibility and contracts won ”, notes the author of the book
The New Golden Age of Space
. "This sub-orbital tourist flight is a world first, but it's only a flea jump in space, and Bezos knows it: it's pale, so he gives of his person to come out of the shadows. by Space X. " Bezos, who let go of the reins of Amazon and is in the process of taking control of his space company, sends a strong message to the space sector and to Congress by playing the guinea pigs - "You see, it's operational" - and prepares the ground for its future launchers, much more powerful.
With this announcement, Jeff Bezos finally takes his other competitor in space tourism: Richard Branson. After a successful test for his SpaceShipTwo at the end of May, the boss of Virgin Galactic should himself leave for the outer reaches of space. But that will have to wait for another successful test flight, in which company employees will take part!