Has Pushed Back Manned Test Flight Schedule Into 2018

Blue Origin still has every intention of offering suborbital flights to the public, but the timeline for starting the 11-minute rides to the edge of space has been pushed back into 2019.

Fortune magazine online reports that Blue Origin has initially intended to begin manned testing the New Shepard booster and capsule this year, but it now appears that such manned test flights will not occur until sometime in 2018. The new target for the first paying customers to be carried on a suborbital flight is now April, 2019.

At a National Space Council meeting last month, Blue Origin CEO Bob Smith said that the company will begin "launching humans into space" within the next 18 months. He said the passengers will be "everyday citizens."

He did not mention what the cost of such a flight would be. Virgin Galactic is charging $250,000 for a suborbital flight aboard SpaceShipTwo, when that system is ready to begin carrying passengers.

Meanwhile, SpaceX is still hoping to carry passengers on excursions around the moon late next year.

(Image from file)

FMI: Original Report