Jeff Bezos wants to send you to space. But it'll cost you.
Are you ready for liftoff? Blue Origin, the space tourism rocket company founded by Amazon's Jeff Bezos, has at last announced the cost of a ticket to leave Earth's atmosphere, and let's just say you need to start saving up now. The first trips to space will start at $200,000 next year, Reuters reports, with the high end being $300,000.
Blue Origin's New Shepard spacecraft takes wealthy adventurers 62 miles from the planet's surface, to suborbital space — where passengers will feel weightlessness and be able to see the curvature of the Earth. The detachable passenger capsule, with six big windows, then floats back to Earth using parachutes.
So far Blue Origin has completed eight test flights, including two with a test dummy fondly nicknamed "Mannequin Skywalker," but none yet with actual humans. The first passengers are expected to be company employees — so get in line.
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Jeva Lange was the executive editor at TheWeek.com. She formerly served as The Week's deputy editor and culture critic. She is also a contributor to Screen Slate, and her writing has appeared in The New York Daily News, The Awl, Vice, and Gothamist, among other publications. Jeva lives in New York City. Follow her on Twitter.
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