‘Best day ever’: Billionaire Bezos has successful suborbital jaunt

VAN HORN, Texas—Jeff Bezos, the world's richest man, soared about 107 kilometers above the Texas desert aboard his company Blue Origin's New Shepard launch vehicle on Tuesday and returned safely to Earth, a historic suborbital flight that helps to inaugurate a new era of private commercial space tourism. 

"Best day ever," Bezos, accompanied by the world's oldest and youngest space travelers, said after his space capsule descended with three large parachutes and touched down, kicking up a cloud of dust.

The 57-year-old American billionaire, wearing a blue flight suit and donning a cowboy hat, was joined by three crewmates for a trip to the edge of space lasting 10 minutes and 10 seconds. After landing, Bezos and the other crew members exchanged hugs and popped champagne, spraying each other.

"Astronaut Bezos in my seat — happy, happy, happy," Bezos said in response to a mission control status check after the crew members buckled back in aboard New Shepard's capsule following a few minutes of weightlessness in space. 

The fully autonomous 60-foot-tall gleaming white spacecraft, with a blue feather design on its side, ignited its BE-3 engines for a vertical liftoff from Blue Origin's Launch Site One facility about 32 km outside the rural town of Van Horn. There were generally clear skies with a few patchy clouds on a cool morning for the launch. 

Bezos, founder of ecommerce company Amazon.com Inc, and his brother Mark Bezos, a private equity executive, were joined by two others. Pioneering female aviator Wally Funk, 82, and recent high school graduate Oliver Daemen, 18, became the oldest and youngest people to reach space.

The flight came nine days after Briton Richard Branson was aboard his competing space tourism company Virgin Galactic's successful inaugural suborbital flight from New Mexico. The two flights give credibility and inject enthusiasm into the fledgling space tourism industry that Swiss bank UBS estimates will be worth $3 billion annually in a decade.

Bezos, who founded Blue Origin two decades ago, described the company's first crewed space flight as a step toward an ambitious future. Blue Origin plans for two more passenger flights this year. Bezos said it has not determined its future pace of flights after that but said it is approaching $100 million in private sales.

"The demand is very, very high," Bezos told a news conference.

"We're going to build a road to space so that our kids and their kids can build a future. ... We need to do that to solve the problems here on Earth," Bezos added.

Bezos said the architecture and technology for the flight was "overkill for a little tourism mission."

"Big things start small," Bezos added. 

-reuters-    

Stellar view? Space hotels race to offer tourists a room in the sky

TBILISI, Georgia - Tired of your ordinary earthly vacations? Some day soon you might be able to board a rocket and get a room with a view - of the whole planet - from a hotel in space.

At least, that is the sales pitch of several companies racing to become the first to host guests in orbit on purpose-built space stations.

"It sounds kind of crazy to us today because it is not a reality yet," said Frank Bunger, founder of US aerospace firm Orion Span, one of the companies vying to take travelers out of this world.

"But that's the nature of these things, it sounds crazy until it is normal."

US multimillionaire Dennis Tito became the world's first paying space tourist in 2001, traveling to the International Space Station (ISS) aboard a Russian Soyuz rocket for a reported $20 million. A few others have followed.

Since then, companies like Boeing, SpaceX and Blue Origin have been working on ways to bring the stars into reach for more people - opening up a new business frontier for would-be space hoteliers.

US space agency NASA announced in June that it plans to allow two private citizens a year to stay at the ISS at a cost of about $35,000 per night for up to a month. The first mission could be as early as 2020.

But the growing movement has raised questions about the adequacy of current space laws, which mainly deal with exploration and keeping space free of weapons, not hotels and holidaymakers.

"It is difficult now to want to do things in space and get a clear answer from (space law)," said Christopher Johnson, a space law adviser at the Secure World Foundation, a space advocacy group.

"For something as advanced as hotels in space there is no clear guidance."

ORBITAL HOLIDAY

Orion Span plans to host the first guests on its Aurora Station - a capsule-shaped spacecraft roughly the size of a private jet - by 2024, said Bunger.

Accompanied by a crew member, up to five travelers at a time would fly up to the station for a 12-day stay costing at least $9.5 million per head, he said.

In orbit, guests would take part in scientific experiments, enjoy some 16 sunrises and sunsets a day and play table tennis in zero gravity, he said, adding about 30 people had already put down a $80,000 deposit to save a seat.

"We haven't seen this kind of excitement about space since the Apollo era," Bunger told the Thomson Reuters Foundation by phone.

Californian company the Gateway Foundation is hoping to build a massive space station able to sleep more than 400 people - including tourists, researchers, doctors and housekeepers.

Solar-powered and shaped like a wheel, the station would spin around its core to create artificial gravity on its perimeter, equal to about one-sixth of that on earth, said its architect Tim Alatorre.

"The problem is that you can only spin so fast before you start feeling sick," he said. "We could easily create earth gravity on the station by spinning it faster but you wouldn't be very comfortable."

The group aims to complete the station, named after Wernher von Braun, the former Nazi rocket scientist who later worked on the US Apollo program, by 2028.

Without disclosing how much a space holiday would cost, Alatorre said the goal was to make the station "accessible to the everyday person".

"So somebody can save up and go on a vacation to the United States or they can save up and go on a vacation to space," he said.

Yet that could take time to become a reality, said Lucy Berthoud, a space engineering professor at Britain's University of Bristol.

"The launch cost is the bottleneck for anyone who is doing this kind of enterprise," she said.

For example, NASA is expected to pay more than $50 million per seat to launch astronauts into space with Boeing and SpaceX rockets.

"It will take an increase in competition between launchers and a jump in technology to significantly lower costs," said Berthoud.

In recent years, several companies - including Spain's Galactic Suite and Russia's Orbital Technologies - have failed to live up to their pledges to host guests on orbiting hotels by now.

LEGAL HURDLES

The law is another hurdle for space hotels to lift off.

The rush of speculation in space has revealed gaps in international laws and treaties governing its use and sparked calls for greater oversight.

Life far from earth is mainly regulated by the 1967 Outer Space Treaty, which bans countries from claiming space and celestial bodies for themselves but allows for their use for peaceful purposes - opening the door to business exploitation.

But firms would need authorization from a state, normally the one where they are incorporated, to launch a hotel in space, said Tanja Masson-Zwaan, space law professor at Leiden University in the Netherlands.

Authorizing governments would also have to continuously supervise each space station's activities, she said.

And all states involved in the creation and launch of a space station are liable in perpetuity for any damage the station might cause - if it were to crash into a satellite, for example.

That responsibility could make governments wary of supporting such ventures in the first place, said Masson-Zwaan.

"I don't think there will be many states that will accept to authorize and supervise this kind of activity as long as it is not super-safe," she said.

The regulations that do exist are outdated and problematic to potential space hoteliers, noted Bunger of Orion Span, pointing to the Aurora Station project as an example.

Because the station will have some thrust capability to help it stay in orbit, it falls under a 40-year-old US set of rules on defense goods conceived mainly to prevent sensitive arms technology being sold to countries deemed to be a risk, he said.

Those rules have requirements on transparency and disclosure that have more to do with ballistic missiles than space holidays, Bunger said.

"Clearly this is not a weapon," he said of the station.

"There is not one government in the world that has caught up to the reality that tourists are trying to go into space," he said.

source: news.abs-cbn.com

Virgin Galactic becomes first space tourism company to land on Wall Street

NEW YORK -- Virgin Galactic landed on Wall Street Monday, debuting its listing on the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) in a first for a space tourism company.

Founder Richard Branson appeared on the floor of the NYSE to ring a bell marking the beginning of trading, as fireworks jetted behind him.

"We have pioneered several space milestones, including sending our chief astronaut trainer as the first passenger to space on a commercial spaceship," Virgin Galactic said on Twitter.

"Today, we tick off another first -- now anyone can invest in the future of space."

The company, which will trade under the initials SPCE, ended down 0.34 percent at $11.75, with a valuation of $969 million.

Virgin Galactic joined the NYSE after merging with Social Capital Hedosophia, which was already listed. This allowed it to skip the formal IPO process and bring in $450 million.

Founded in 2004, Virgin Galactic has spent years developing its space program, and after a fatal accident in 2014, has twice crossed the barrier into the final frontier.

The company plans to offer weightless flights to six passengers at a time, at $250,000 (225,750 euros) a ticket for the first customers from the Summer of 2020, though it has yet to begin commercial launches. 

The client-astronauts will be able to float around the ship's cabin and look out of portholes to see the curvature of the Earth, all while surrounded by the blackness of space. 

More than 600 people have already signed up for the journey.

Branson is joined in the new space race by Blue Origin, founded by Amazon chief Jeff Bezos, which wants to offer clients a few minutes of weightlessness aboard a small rocket that takes off vertically.

Tesla's Elon Musk has founded SpaceX, with an eye on long-range space travel.

source: news.abs-cbn.com

Billionaire Bezos unveils moon lander mockup, touts Blue Origin's lunar goals

WASHINGTON - Billionaire entrepreneur Jeff Bezos, founder of rocket company Blue Origin, unveiled on Thursday a mockup of a lunar lander spacecraft and discussed missions to the moon in a strategy tailored to the US government's renewed push to establish a lunar outpost in just 5 years.

Bezos, the world's richest man and also chief executive and founder of Amazon.com, told a rare media event in Washington that the lander, named Blue Moon, could deliver payloads to the moon's surface and deploy payloads during journey to Moon.

US Vice President Mike Pence in March called on NASA to build a space platform in lunar orbit and put American astronauts on the moon's south pole by 2024 "by any means necessary," 4 years earlier than previously planned.

"I love this," Bezos said of Pence's timeline. "We can help meet that timeline but only because we started 3 years ago. It's time to go back to the moon, this time to stay."

During his hour-long presentation at Washington's convention center, Bezos waved his arm and a black drape behind him dropped to reveal the two-story-tall unmanned lander mockup, which he said can deploy up to 4 smaller rovers and shoot out satellites to orbit the moon.

"This is an incredible vehicle and it's going to the moon," he added.

Bezos unveiled a model of one of the proposed rovers, which was roughly the size of a golf cart. Bezos also presented a new rocket engine called BE-7, which can blast 10,000 pounds (4,535 kg) of thrust.

Privately held Blue Origin, based in Kent, Washington, is developing its New Shepard rocket for short space tourism trips and a heavy-lift launch rocket called New Glenn for satellite launch contracts. It is aiming to deliver the New Glenn rocket by 2021, while launching humans in a suborbital flight later this year atop its rocket-and-capsule New Shepard.

Blue Origin has also previously discussed a human outpost on the moon.

NASA has already set its sights on the moon's south pole, a region believed to hold enough recoverable ice water for use in synthesizing additional rocket fuel as well as for drinking water.

Bezos, who has talked about his broader vision of enabling a future in which millions of people live and work in space, has been intent on moving Blue Origin closer to commercialization.

His announcement came about 2 months before the 50th anniversary of the first moon landing, and he began his presentation with video of that event.

Bezos spoke of the importance of future human colonization of space and mentioned 2 important issues: reducing launch costs and using resources already in space.

"One of the most important things we know about the moon today is that there's water there," Bezos said. "It's in the form of ice. It's in the permanently shadowed craters on the poles of the moon."

His vision is shared by other billionaire-backed private space ventures like Elon Musk's SpaceX and aerospace incumbents like United Launch Alliance, a partnership between Boeing Co and Lockheed Martin.

While Bezos is angling to become a leading player in space exploration and win business from the US government, he has been the target of repeated criticism from President Donald Trump, who has referred to him as Jeff "Bozo." Bezos also owns the Washington Post, which Trump has frequently targeted in his broadsides about "fake news."

source: news.abs-cbn.com

Jeff Bezos space project lands big rocket partnership

SAN FRANCISCO - Jeff Bezos backed Blue Origin space exploration project on Thursday landed a major deal to provide engines for a next-generation rocket being built by a major US launch services contractor.

United Launch Alliance said that Blue Origin will provide engines for the booster stage of a next-generation rocket -- the Vulcan Centaur -- which is on track to take to the sky in the year 2020.

ULA was created as a joint venture by Lockheed Martin and Boeing.

"Vulcan Centaur will revolutionize spaceflight and provide affordable, reliable access to space for our current and future customers," ULA chief executive Tory Bruno said in a release.

"We are pleased to enter into this partnership with Blue Origin and look forward to a successful first flight of our next-generation launch vehicle."

The design of the new rocket is nearing completion, and it will be able to carry payloads into orbit around the Earth, according to Bruno.

"United Launch Alliance is the premier launch service provider for national security missions, and we're thrilled to be part of their team and that mission," said Blue Origin chief executive Bob Smith.

Bezos is behind private space exploration operation Blue Origin, into which he usually invests money from selling Amazon shares.

Blue Origin has outlined plans to build a spaceship and lunar lander capable of delivering cargo to the moon, perhaps to support colonies there.

gc/ia

source: news.abs-cbn.com

Jeff Bezos plans to charge at least $200,000 for space rides

SEATTLE - Jeff Bezos' rocket company plans to charge passengers about $200,000 to $300,000 for its first trips into space next year, 2 people familiar with its plans told Reuters.

Potential customers and the aerospace industry have been eager to learn the cost of a ticket on Blue Origin's New Shepard space vehicle, to find out if it is affordable and whether the company can generate enough demand to make a profit on space tourism.

Executives at the company, started by Amazon.com Inc founder Bezos in 2000, told a business conference last month they planned test flights with passengers on the New Shepard soon, and to start selling tickets next year.

The company, based about 20 miles (32 km) south of Seattle, has made public the general design of the vehicle - comprising a launch rocket and detachable passenger capsule - but has been tight-lipped on production status and ticket prices.

Blue Origin representatives did not respond to requests for comment on its programs and pricing strategy. Bezos said in May ticket prices had not yet been decided.

One Blue Origin employee with first-hand knowledge of the pricing plan said the company will start selling tickets in the range of about $200,000 to $300,000. A second employee said tickets would cost a minimum of $200,000. They both spoke on condition of anonymity as the pricing strategy is confidential.

The New Shepard is designed to autonomously fly 6 passengers more than 62 miles (100 km) above Earth into suborbital space, high enough to experience a few minutes of weightlessness and see the curvature of the planet before the pressurized capsule returns to earth under parachutes.

The capsule features 6 observation windows Blue Origin says are nearly 3 times as tall as those on a Boeing Co 747 jetliner.

Blue Origin has completed 8 test flights of the vertical take-off and landing New Shepard from its launch pad in Texas, but none with passengers aboard. Two flights have included a test dummy the company calls "Mannequin Skywalker."

The company will do the first test in space of its capsule escape system, which propels the crew to safety should the booster explode, "within weeks," one of the employees said.

SMALL STEP FOR A MAN

Blue Origin, whose Latin motto means "step by step, ferociously," is working towards making civilian space flight an important niche in the global space economy, alongside satellite services and government exploration projects, already worth over $300 billion a year.

Bezos, the world's richest person with a fortune of about $112 billion, has competition from fellow billionaires Richard Branson and Elon Musk, Tesla Inc's chief executive.

Branson's Virgin Galactic says it has sold about 650 tickets aboard its own planned space voyages, but has not set out a date for flights to start. The company is charging $250,000 per ticket, in line with Blue Origin's proposed pricing.

SpaceX, founded by Musk in 2002, says its ultimate goal is to enable people to live on other planets.

All 3 are looking to slash the cost of spaceflight by developing reusable spacecraft, meaning prices for passengers and payloads should drop as launch frequency increases.

While Blue Origin has not disclosed its per-flight operating costs, Teal Group aerospace analyst Marco Caceres estimated each flight could cost the firm about $10 million. With 6 passengers per trip, that would mean losing millions of dollars per launch, at least initially.

Three sources said Blue's first passengers are likely to include its own employees, though the company has not selected them yet. 

source: news.abs-cbn.com

Billionaire Amazon CEO asks Twitter followers how to donate his money

Amazon.com Inc's billionaire founder Jeff Bezos on Thursday turned to an unusual source of inspiration for how to donate part of his wealth: Twitter.

"I want much of my philanthropic activity to be helping people in the here and now - short term - at the intersection of urgent need and lasting impact," Bezos, one of the world's richest people with a net worth of more than $76 billion, said in a Twitter post.

"If you have ideas, just reply to this tweet with the idea (and if you think this approach is wrong, would love to hear that too.)"

The request signaled a shift for Bezos, who has invested in longer-term bets like space exploration and kept quieter about other givings.

The e-commerce executive has said he will sell about $1 billion of Amazon stock annually to fund his company Blue Origin, which aims to cut the cost of space travel and kick off entrepreneurship in the cosmos.

For philanthropy, Bezos has supported a foundation run by his parents that focuses on education. His family has also given more than $40 million to Seattle's Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center, not far from Amazon's headquarters.

Still, Bezos has yet to make charity a cornerstone of his work, like Microsoft Corp's Bill Gates or Facebook Inc's Mark Zuckerberg have. Bezos has not joined them and 167 other of the world's richest people in pledging to give more than half of their fortunes to philanthropy.

Asked in an interview with Charlie Rose last year if he one day would rival Gates' magnanimity, Bezos joked, "Well, yeah, if there is anything left after I finish building Blue Origin."

His Twitter post had generated nearly 4,000 replies within three hours.

Recommendations ranged from food programs for children, to protecting forests and fighting homelessness.

"Repurpose shipping containers to provide micro-homes for the homeless," tweeted journalist and analyst John Koetsier. "Give them a safe, dry place to sleep, then work on further needs."

source: news.abs-cbn.com