Forget spending a week at your uncle’s weird timeshare in Tampa Bay; your next vacation could be out of this world, quite literally. Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos wants to send tourists to space beginning in 2019, and we’re not just talking about putting The Expanse back on TV.
Speaking at the Wired 25 Summit in San Francisco in October (via Recode), Bezos revealed that getting you 8 pounds of cereal marshmallows within 48 hours isn’t his number one priority. It is taking one small step for man and one giant leap for what mankind can spend their money on. Bezos said that his spaceflight company Blue Origin’s number one goal is working on a “tourism mission” to space.
Potential space-cationers will board Blue Origins’ New Shepard Capsule, a 530 cubic-foot craft with room for up to 6 people. Before you start complaining, though, remember that this is 10 times the volume that Alan Shepard had aboard his historic Freedom 7 mission. And it’s still bigger than literally any apartment in Brooklyn. The 10-minute-long ride will cost you a cool $100,000 to $200,000, but…there will be nice leather seats, so consider it money well spent.
If you’re worried that you’ll need a vacation before you take your vacation in order to do all the requisite astronaut training, then don’t worry. Apparently you’ll only need a day or two of training. “I’m pushing for a day,” said Bezos. “I don’t think you’ll need two days of training for this.” Sure, Jeff, sure. Maybe if we’re Lance Bass or something.
Speaking of Lance Bass, don’t expect to see him or even a Blue Origin employee on board with you. It will just be you and five other strangers glancing with the stars. But that doesn’t seem to worry Bezos in the slightest. “I was hopeful it would happen in 2018,” Bezos said. “I keep telling the team, it’s not a race. I want this to be the safest space vehicle in the history of space vehicles.” Honestly, as long as it’s safer than the Enterprise in any of the Kelvin timeline Star Trek movies, I’m on board. Because that thing has only one setting: constantly exploding.
But what do you think? Would you shell out the big bucks for a trip to space next year? Or are you holding out until Elon Musk’s SpaceX and Richard Branson’s Virgin Galactic catch up? Let me know in the comments below!
Images: Blue Origin
