Watch: Jeff Bezos wants to send you into space as a tourist. This is what you might see
The test run took the non-human Mannequin Skywalker into space.
Apart from being the world’s richest man and running the world’s largest e-commerce business, Jeff Bezos also dedicates his time to his space tourism ambitions via Blue Origin, his private spaceflight company. Funded by the Bezos’s personal fortune, Blue Origin plans to utilise its reusable New Shepard Crew Capsule 2.0 to have tourists going into space by early 2019.
The suborbital spacecraft was successfully tested on December 12 in West Texas.
#NewShepard had a successful first flight of Crew Capsule 2.0 today. Complete with windows and our instrumented test dummy. He had a great ride. @BlueOrigin pic.twitter.com/PZHXWXjuw9
— Jeff Bezos (@JeffBezos) December 13, 2017
Crucially, the capsule, built to seat six passengers, wasn’t sent up empty. It had a single occupant, named Mannequin Skywalker, a cleverly named test dummy visible in the video above. The capsule features the largest windows on such a craft, the views through which can be seen in the video.
Skywalker doesn’t seem to be having much fun on the ride, though. No matter, said Bezos.
Full video of Mannequin Skywalker’s ride to space. Unlike him, you’ll be able to get out of your seat during the zero gee part of the flight. And ignore the pinging sound – it’s just from one of the experiments on this flight. #NewShepard @blueorigin https://t.co/dJ5VEeaWb6 pic.twitter.com/qGQC1vfW7D
— Jeff Bezos (@JeffBezos) December 15, 2017
Bezos also took the opportunity to introduce to the world Blue Origin’s landing pad bot, called (of course) “Blue2D2”.
First use of our landing pad bot #Blue2D2. @blueorigin pic.twitter.com/Ht2P7yVwEs
— Jeff Bezos (@JeffBezos) December 15, 2017