Jeff Bezos company planning human test space flights by 2017
(AP) — Private space travel company Blue Origin expects its first test flights with people in 2017, company founder Jeff Bezos said Tuesday during a tour of the venture's research and development site outside Seattle.
For now, the man who founded Amazon.com is spending some of the billions earned from the Seattle-based online retailer on high tech equipment and about 600 employees working in a former Boeing airplane parts facility.
Bezos said he wasn't concerned about his competition to build the next generation of rocket engines because society will need lots of help moving industry and people off the planet.
A handful of other U.S. companies are currently competing in the private space business, including SpaceX and Virgin Galactic, which are also at the testing stage.