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The US Federal Aviation Administration on Monday approved a license to Blue Origin, the company owned by the world's richest man, Jeff Bezos, to carry humans on its New Shepherd launch system into space.
Bezos, the former CEO of Amazon e-commerce, is scheduled to fly to the edge of space in the first manned flight from his company, "Blue Origin," on Tuesday, July 20, according to Reuters.
The US Federal Aviation Administration confirmed that its license to "Blue Origin" to carry humans into space is valid until next August, and it has agreed that those flights will be launched from the "Launch Site One" facility in Texas, USA.
The administration added that it had asked the company to verify that its launch vehicle's hardware and software worked safely during a test flight, and confirmed that it met regulatory requirements.
Jeff Bezos prepares to travel to space
Reports indicated that Jeff Bezos' trip to space will come several days after his rival, British billionaire Richard Branson, succeeded in traveling on a similar trip to the edge of space, aboard a spacecraft owned by his private company, Virgin Galactic, which also intends to compete in the field of space tourism.
Analysts predict that if space travel is proven to be safe for the general public, the global space tourism market will generate annual profits of about $3 billion.