Jeff Bezos Shows First Images Of Its Spacecraft

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Jeff Bezos, the founder of Amazon.com, released the first images and a video of its spacecraft, called Goddard. According to BBC, the video sows cone-shaped Goddard climbing to about 85m (285ft) before returning back to Earth. The test launch took place in November 2006 in a remote part of Texas, but details have only now been released. Goddard is a spacecraft developed by Blue Origin, a commercial space company set up by Jeff Bezos. "We're working, patiently and step-by-step, to lower the costs of spaceflight so that many people can afford to go and so that we humans can better continue exploring the solar system," Bezos said on the Web page of Blue Origin. "Accomplishing this mission will take a long time, and we're working on it methodically." The Goddard spaceship is a vertical take-off and landing rocket that will one day take three passengers into low earth orbit. “Our first objective is developing New Shepard, a vertical take-off, vertical-landing vehicle designed to take a small number of astronauts on a sub-orbital journey into space. On the morning of November 13, 2006, we launched and landed Goddard – a first development vehicle in the New Shepard program. The launch was both useful and fun. Many friends and family came to watch the launch and support the team.” wrote Bezos on the site. In September 2006, Virgin airline's Richard Branson launched an ambitious plan to take tourists into space aboard Virgin Galactic spaceliners that will be decked out with comfortable reclining seats and plenty of views. According to Branson, the SpaceShipTwo vehicles, being built by Mojave, California-based Scaled Composites and aerospace designer Burt Rutan, will be specially outfitted to accommodate daring space-crazed tourists who will pay each 200,000 dollars for a two-and-a-half-hour flight.