Former Amazon Chief Executive Jeff Bezos is set to fly to
the edge of space on Blue Origin's maiden crewed voyage on July 20.
Blue Origin is authorised to carry humans while its FAA
license is valid through August and is approved to conduct these missions from
its Launch Site One facility in Texas, the agency confirmed.
Blue Origin was required to verify its launch vehicle's
hardware and software worked safely during a test flight and the FAA confirmed
it met regulatory requirements.
Blue Origin's flight will come a little over a week after
space-tourism rival Virgin Galactic successfully sent a crew including its
founder, British billionaire Richard Branson, to the edge of space.
Virgin Galactic and Blue Origin, as well as the space firm
founded by rival billionaire Elon Musk, are working to usher in a new era of
routine commercial civilian space travel in what has been popularised as the
"billionaire space race."
Proving rocket travel is safe for the public is key to
developing what the Swiss-based investment bank UBS estimates will be a $3
billion annual space tourism market in a decade.
©Reuters