Another week, another billionaire with a rocket company going to space.
Last week, it was Richard Branson earning his astronaut wings riding a space plane from Virgin Galactic, a company he founded 14 years ago, to an altitude of more than 50 miles above the skies of New Mexico.
On Tuesday, it will be Jeff Bezos, the richest human being in the universe, who will strap into a capsule built by his rocket company, Blue Origin, and blast off even higher, to more than 62 miles above West Texas.
Blue Origin is aiming for the rocket to take off at 9 a.m. Eastern time on Tuesday, July 20. The company will begin coverage of the launch at 7:30 a.m. on its YouTube channel, or you can watch it in the video player embedded above. The date coincides with the 52nd anniversary of the Apollo 11 moon landing.
On Monday night, the company said in a message on Twitter that Mr. Bezos and his fellow passengers had completed their training exercises and were ready to lift off. Early on Tuesday, Blue Origin released video footage showing the rocket being rolled out of its hangar and stood up at the launchpad, and said the launch was sticking to the planned schedule so far.
While other space entrepreneurs have highlighted their rivalry with Mr. Bezos’ company in recent weeks, those competitors wished him and Blue Origin well in the hours ahead of the launch. Elon Musk, the founder of SpaceX, tweeted “Best of luck” to Blue Origin early on Tuesday morning. Virgin Galactic on Monday bid Mr. Bezos and company “a successful and safe flight.”
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