The CEO of Jeff Bezos' space company says there is a chance that tourists will be able to travel to space with Blue Origin in 2018.

Bob Smith spoke with CNBC's Morgan Brennan at the 34th Space Symposium at Colorado Springs, Colorado, Tuesday and Brennan asked Smith: "Are you going to be sending space tourists up to the edge of space before this year is out?"

"We hope so," said a cautiously optimistic Smith. "We think we still have that possibility of getting that done this year," he said.

Still, Smith emphasized, "the thing we always want to make sure that we do every time, whether we're talking about step-by-step development or actually operations as well, we're going to go when we're ready — and we want to make sure it's completely safe for our passengers," he said.