Jeff Bezos, the founder and CEO of Amazon.com, appears to be going the way of fellow billionaire Elon Musk, unveiling his own space travel venture.
According to GeekWire, Bezos unveiled Blue Origin Tuesday morning in Cape Canaveral, Fla. on the site where he wants to build a launch pad. Bezos' plan is to build a rocket and an orbital spacecraft and launch it from the site called Launch Complex 36 by within the next few years.
"One of the unique things about our Florida operations is that we aren't just launching here, we're building here," Bezos at a news conference announcing the venture. "At Exploration Park, we'll have a 21st century production facility where we'll focus on manufacturing our reusable fleet of orbital launchers and readying them for flight again and again.
"We'll be launching from here later this decade."
For a full transcript of Bezos' address, head over to Blue Origin's official website.
The Amazon founder's space venture will be for $200 million and aims to build a launch pad at the Exploration Park. The site is situated south of NASA's Kennedy Space Center, GeekWire noted.
Blue Origin is currently developing a rocket called the New Sheppard, which is capable of flying to an altitude of 100 miles before returning to Earth, Reuters reported. Bezos envisions the spacecraft more than doubling that altitude and possibly one day ferrying astronauts to the International Space Station (ISS) for NASA.
With SpaceX, Musk is farther along in developing a commercial spacecraft capable of taking astronauts to and from the ISS, but Bezos' venture is still a significant step for the industry.
"I don't know how long this will take, but one day, I look forward to having a press conference with you guys in space," Bezos said in his address. "Looking forward to it very much."
