Skip to main content

Blue Origin’s prototype space tourism capsule looks plush and roomy

If you’re loaded with money and rather like the idea of a trip to the edge of space, then Blue Origin is probably on the list of companies you’re currently considering for your ride of a lifetime.

Founded by Amazon boss Jeff Bezos, Blue Origin has been making steady progress with its New Shepard reusable rocket system that will one day take space tourists on unforgettable suborbital adventures. With a growing number of successful unmanned missions under its belt, the company is hoping to launch the service as early as 2018.

Recommended Videos

As Blue Origin moves ever closer to the first human test flights of its system, expected later this year, Bezos this week released several images offering a glimpse of the kind of comfort paying passengers can expect to enjoy during their trip.

Blue Origin capsule
Image used with permission by copyright holder

The plushly designed capsule, which looks suitably science fiction, features six comfy-looking reclining seats positioned close to the large windows so the tourists can enjoy a view like no other. “Every seat’s a window seat, the largest windows ever in space,” Bezos said in an email update on Wednesday.

Please enable Javascript to view this content

The seats will become temporarily redundant when the capsule reaches a spot 62 miles (100 km) above the surface of the Earth, as the passengers will be permitted to unbelt and have some fun floating idly about in a weightless environment.

Speaking at the Space Symposium event in Colorado Springs last year, Bezos described the kind of experience Blue Origin space tourists can expect.

“We want people to be able to get out, float around, do somersaults, enjoy the microgravity, look out of those beautiful windows,” he said, adding that the training for the trip would be “relatively simple.”

Blue Origin is yet to reveal how much it’ll cost to go on its 12-minute suborbital adventure, though rival outfit Virgin Galactic has been charging around $250,000 for reservations aboard its SpaceShipTwo rocket plane.

Trevor Mogg
Contributing Editor
Not so many moons ago, Trevor moved from one tea-loving island nation that drives on the left (Britain) to another (Japan)…
See how Blue Origin’s rocket did in first flight since 2022 explosion
watch blue origin first rocket flight in 15 months new shepard ns24

Replay: New Shepard Mission NS-24 Webcast

Blue Origin sent its suborbital rocket to the edge of space and back on its first flight since a 2022 midair explosion grounded its operation.

Read more
How to watch Blue Origin’s rocket return to flight
New Shepard lifts off from Launch Site One in West Texas for the NS-16 mission on July 20, 2021.

UPDATE: Blue Origin scrubbed Monday's launch attempt to deal with a ground system issue. It's now targeting Tuesday, December 19, with a launch window opening at 10:37 a.m. CT (11:37 a.m. ET/8:37 a.m. PT).

The rocket company owned by Amazon founder Jeff Bezos will launch its sub-orbital New Shepard vehicle for the first time in 15 months on Tuesday, and the whole event will be live-streamed.

Read more
Jeff Bezos’ Blue Origin to make first rocket flight since 2022 explosion
New Shepard lifts off from Launch Site One in West Texas for the NS-16 mission on July 20, 2021.

New Shepard launches the first crew, including Blue Origin founder Jeff Bezos, in a flight to the edge of space in July 2021. Blue Origin / Blue Origin

Blue Origin is aiming to launch its New Shepard rocket as early as next week in what will be its first flight since September 2022, when the vehicle exploded in midair shortly after lift-off.

Read more