Jeff Bezos said Blue Origin’s first crewed spaceflight on Tuesday represented one step toward the company’s mission of expanding to a point where people live and work in space.
“This is a tiny little step of what Blue Origin is going to do. What we’re really trying to do is build reusable space vehicles. It’s the only way to build a road to space, and we need to build a road to space so that our children can build the future,” Bezos told CNBC’s Morgan Brennan.
“If you want to be a space entrepreneur today, you have to do everything from the beginning. There’s no real infrastructure that’s at an affordable cost. So that’s what we have to do, is build that kind of infrastructure and then future generations will get to rest on top of it,” Bezos added.
Bezos flew as one of the four passengers on board the inaugural crew launch of its New Shepard rocket and capsule. The founder of Blue Origin, Bezos sees New Shepard as a pathfinder for his company’s other, larger scale projects.
“This suborbital tourism mission lets us practice,” Bezos said. “We need to do that over and over and over and get as good at running space vehicles as we are as a civilization at running commercial airliners.”
More time for Blue Origin
Bezos emphasized that he now has more time to spend focused on his space venture, which he founded in 2000.
“Since I stepped down as the CEO of Amazon, I have a lot of time to dedicate to this vision. so I’m going to split my time between this and the Bezos Earth Fund, which is the climate sustainability foundation,” Bezos said.
This is a developing story. Check back for updates.
This article was originally published on CNBC