By CGTN’s Gao Songya
The founder and CEO of American e-commerce giant Amazon, Jeff Bezos, has announced plans to reinvest one billion US dollars worth of Amazon's retail shares every year to fund his Blue Origin rocket venture.
Bezos introduced Blue Origin's New Shepard rocket booster and Crew Capsule mock-up to the media at the 33rd Space Symposium in Colorado on Wednesday. It's a reusable vertical takeoff, vertical landing capsule, designed with both safety and comfort concerns in mind.
Jeff Bezos speaks at the Space Symposium in Colorado on April 5, 2017. /CFP Photo
Bezos plans to launch paying tourists into space within two years.
"I want Blue Origin to be a thriving enterprise, and to open the gateway to the new generation of people," said Bezos.
Inside the Blue Origin's Crew Capsule mock-up. /CFP Photo
Tourism isn't the only sector he is targeting, as the market for global satellite services is also vast. Both are now welcoming more private players to the field.
UK billionaire Richard Branson's Virgin Galactic, Russian company KosmoKurs and Elon Musk's SpaceX are all looking to send tourists into space.
Max Wolff, market strategist from 55 Capital Partners, said that the space industry is still far away from achieving economies of scale, but it will if enough people start trying it.
"Every additional success and every additional unit of demand for these services does increase the industry," said Wolff. “If enough people get into this business and really try hard and long enough, we will get there.”
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