Amazon is no longer willing to provide free book delivery to Portugal and elsewhere, but its founder is getting ready to go into space.
A company owned by Jeff Bezos has completed work on a rocket engine for a suborbital spaceship.
Blue Origin officials say flight tests are to start this year.
Its “New Shepard” space craft can hold three people and fly some 100km above planet Earth.
It will launch from a spot near El Paso, Texas which lies very close to the border with Mexico.
The rocket engine has been tested which, according to Blue Origin’s president, is the last step before the motor fuelled by liquid oxygen and liquid hydrogen is attached to the capsule for flight.
Before taking on passengers, however, the capsule will fly unmanned dozens of times. The step after that will include pilots.
Neither flight dates nor ticket prices have been released.
Blue Origin is not alone. A clutch of other companies are preparing to offer commercial flights into space.
New Shepard’s suborbital system is similar to Virgin Galactic’s space plane which accommodates six passengers and two pilots. Its test flights are expected to start again this year after a fatal accident in California last October.
Other firms are proceeding directly into systems which can take people into orbit.
