Following in the space-exploring footsteps of fellow billionaires Elon Musk of Tesla and SpaceX and Virgin Group's Richard Branson, Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos announced his plans to launch his own private aerospace program.
The program will be handled by Bezos' newly formed company named Blue Origin, Information Week reported.
In a blog post on Blue Origin's website, the founder wrote that its main facility will be constructed in Florida's Space Coast, the home of the Kennedy Space Center and the Cape Canaveral Air Force Station.
Blue Origin will make use of the launch site Complex 36. It was used for various space missions from 1962 to 2005 and has already seen a total of 145 launches.
Bezos' plans to establish the Blue Origin in facility is expected to generate more than 300 jobs for the state. According to Governor Rick Scott of Florida, it will also lead to a $200 million capital investment for the state for the next five years.
"I am proud to announce that Blue Origin has selected Florida for this exciting new venture which will create 330 new jobs in Brevard County," the governor said according to Florida Trend.
"Enterprise Florida was instrumental in bringing Blue Origin here, and we must keep working to fully fund Enterprise Florida so we can create more great jobs for Florida families."
As an aerospace company, Blue Origin aims to provide an opportunity for the public to travel to space through its own spacecrafts. In the future, it will also provide its services and technology to deliver payloads and other cargo to space stations.
There are no exact dates yet as to when Blue Origin will officially launch but according to Bezos, this will happen within the next ten years. For its first flight, Blue Origin will launch its Vulcan rocket which is being developed by United Launch Alliance. The spacecraft will be powered by Blue Origin's BE-4 engine, which is capable of producing a thrust power of 2,400 kilonewtons.
Currently, Blue Origin is looking to fill its headquarters with various professionals such as orbital launch site facilities development engineer, propulsion design engineer, software / avionics systems architect and procurement contracts administrator.
Bezos is the latest billionaire to setup his own private space tourism firm. The first is Musk, the CEO of Tesla Motors who established SpaceX in 2002 followed by Virgin Group founder Branson in 2004 with the Virgin Galactic spaceflight company.
