Blue Origin has announced that it is going to start selling seats on its New Shepard suborbital spacecraft. “It’s time. You can buy the very first seat at New Shepard… Register to find out more on our website. Details – May 5. Gradatim Ferociter “, – wrote the Jeff Bezos company (Jeff Bezos). “Gradatim Ferociter” is Blue Origin’s motto in Latin, meaning “Walk with ferocity.”

Blue Origin chose May 5 for a reason. This is the anniversary of the first American manned flight. On this day 60 years ago, NASA sent Alan Shepard on a suborbital 15-minute journey. The suborbital system New Shepard is named after this astronaut.

New Shepard is a reusable first stage accelerator and capsule bundle that Blue Origin is developing to deliver humans and conduct scientific experiments in suborbital space. To date, the six-passenger capsule has completed 15 uncrewed test flights, the last of which took place on April 14. Blue Origin has announced the latest mission as a rehearsal for the astronauts’ flight, so today’s news comes as no surprise.

Unfortunately, Blue Origin did not say how much the seat on board the New Shepard would cost. Presumably, we will find out about this on May 5th. But the order of prices will be such that it will be impossible for ordinary people to buy a ticket. By comparison, the latest price per seat aboard Virgin Galactic SpaceShipTwo, New Shepard’s main competitor in the emerging suborbital space tourism market, was $ 250.