Hear that sound? It’s the simultaneous opening of wallets after future space tourists watch the video Blue Origin CEO Jeff Bezos released Thursday evening showing the breathtaking view from inside the New Shepard space capsule during launch and landing.
The commercial space company launched and landed its New Shepard rocket from Blue Origin’s West Texas launch site on Tuesday for the seventh time. Inside the spacecraft was a lone dummy, dubbed Mannequin Skywalker.
Bezos tweeted the video showing the view from inside the spacecraft, equipped with large windows.
In the 11 minute video, the Texas landscape slowly disappears as the endless blue sky begins to take up the windows of the spacecraft. Then the blue deepens, right as the clouds and Earth begins to fall from view.
“Unlike him, you’ll be able to get out of your seat during the zero G part of the flight,” Bezos said of the mannequin.
At the edge of space, some background beeping from the spacecraft is the only sound in the video. Bezos said in a tweet that the pinging is from one of the experiments also on board the flight.
As the descent begins, the noise picks up and the Texas mountains come back into view.
That quick trip is what the Amazon billionaire Bezos is betting tourists will pay big money to enjoy.
Bezos also posted a short video of the landing pad bot, Blue2 D2, (someone likes Star Wars) roaming around after the New Shepard landed at the Texas landing site.
First use of our landing pad bot #Blue2D2. @blueorigin pic.twitter.com/Ht2P7yVwEs
— Jeff Bezos (@JeffBezos) December 15, 2017
Things are about to pick up for Blue Origin. The New Glenn rocket factory just outside Kennedy Space Center partially opened this week, News 6 partner Florida Today confirmed.
In a tweet, Blue Origin showed that some employees are already getting settled.
"The moment you know you’ve officially moved into the rocket factory," the company tweeted with a photo of some desk items and a hard hat.
The blue and white 750,000 square-foot facility is where the New Glenn rockets will be manufactured. Blue Origin is targeting 2020 for the first launch from Cape Canaveral.