NATIONAL HARBOR, Md. — Blue Origin and Amazon (AMZN) founder Jeff Bezos appeared to give his space company some room to maneuver on the timing of a critical launch.
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Blue Origin will put "people in space this coming year" aboard its New Shepard launch vehicle and crew capsule, Bezos said at the Air Force Association's annual conference Wednesday. The New Shepard crew capsule is geared toward sub-orbital space flights for tourists.
It wasn't immediately clear if Bezos meant in the next 12 months or by the end of 2019. Blue Origin didn't return requests for comment.
But the wording seems to give the company more of a cushion compared to Blue Origin CEO Bob Smith's comments at a satellite conference last week, when he said the company is "well on the path to get humans into space early next year."
Blue Origin Follows SpaceX Squishiness
Depending on the timing of the Blue Origin flight, it could steal some thunder from SpaceX, which is poised to be the first commercial company to take astronauts to the International Space Station this spring under a NASA contract. (However, Blue Origin's rocket would be suborbital, while SpaceX's would be orbital.)
On Monday, SpaceX founder and CEO Elon Musk and COO Gwynne Shotwell seemed to add some wiggle room to the first crewed test flight of the Crew Dragon capsule, saying separately that it would come sometime in the second quarter. SpaceX had said last month that the first crewed test would come in April.
Despite the change, SpaceX is still likely to beat Boeing (BA) in flying the first manned capsule. Boeing sees its first crewed mission happening in "mid-2019" at the earliest.
Blue Origin is also developing a heavy-lift rocket called the New Glenn that would be able to take payloads into orbit and potentially compete against SpaceX for launch services.
Bezos also said Wednesday he will invest just over $1 billion next year in the New Glenn rocket specifically.
Meanwhile, SpaceX plans to send tourists into space too. On Monday, the Blue Origin rival announced it would send Japanese billionaire Yusaku Maezawa and several other artists to be named on a trip around the moon in 2023 aboard SpaceX's Big Falcon Rocket in 2023.
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