
The battle of the billionaires between Jeff Bezos, Elon Musk and Richard Branson looks set to finally blast its first passengers into space next year.

Speaking at the Next-Generation Suborbital Researchers Conference in Colorado, Jeff Ashby, a former NASA astronaut who is director of safety and mission assurance for Jeff Bezos' space firm Blue Origin, said the firm is now 'a year out' from human flights.

It comes as Richard Branson claimed in October he will travel to space on his Virgin Galactic craft within six months.

Elon Musk is also expected to soon reveal the launch schedule for a manned version of his Dragon capsule that will ferry astronauts to the International Space station under a NASA contract next year.

Scroll down for video

The billionaire space race: Jeff Bezos (left) space firm Blue Origin, is now 'a year out' from human flights, while Richard Branson (center) says he hopes to fly aboard Virgin galactic 'within six months'. Elon Musk's SpaceX (right)hopes to send its first astronauts to the International Space Station under a lucrative NASA contract next year.

Blue Origin's test site in West Texas saw the most recent launch last week, when 'Version 2.0' of its crew capsule, outfitted with the large windows that are a distinctive feature of the spacecraft, took off.

The capsule carried 12 experiments as well as a test dummy, dubbed 'Mannequin Skywalker,' to measure the environment a human would experience on those flights.

The test flight was the first performed under a launch license awarded by the Federal Aviation Administration in August.

'You have to be licensed in order to collect revenue,' Ashby told the Next-Generation Suborbital Researchers Conference, according to SpaceNews.

'So last week was the start of a revolution. It was our first revenue flight for payloads: a huge, historic moment for us.'

'We're probably a year and a half, two years out from when we're actually able to fly tended payloads,' Ashby said, which will see astronauts working with experiments on missions.

THE BILLIONAIRE SPACE RACE Jeff Bezos in front of Blue Origin's space capsule Jeff Bezos' space tourism project with Blue Origin is competing with a similar programme in development by Space X, the rocket firm founded and run by Tesla CEO Elon Musk, and Virgin Galactic, backed by Richard Branson. Bezos revealed in April 2017 that he finances Blue Origin with around $1 billion (£720 million) of Amazon stock each year. The system consists of a pressurised crew capsule atop a reusable 'New Shepard' booster rocket. Jeff Bezos is the richest man in the world and Blue Origin has successfully used a single New Shepard Rocket six times. At its peak, the capsule reached 65 miles (104 kilometres), just above the official threshold for space and landed vertically seven minutes after liftoff. Crewed missions for astronauts or tourists have yet to be announced. SpaceX appears to be leading the way in the billionaire space race with numerous launches carrying NASA equipment to the ISS and partnerships to send tourists to space by 2021. On February 6 2018, SpaceX sent rocket towards the orbit of Mars, 140 million miles away, with Musk's own red Tesla roadster attached. Elon Musk with his Dragon Crew capsule NASA has already selected two astronauts who will be on-board the first manned Dragon mission. SpaceX has also started sending batches of 60 satellites into space to help form its Starlink network. Musk hopes this will provide an interconnected web of satellites around Earth which will beam down free internet to people all around the world. Richard Branson and Virgin Galactic are taking a different approach to conquering space. It has repeatedly, and successfully, conducted test flights of the Virgin Galactic’s Unity spaceplane. The first took place in December 2018 and the latest took place on February 22nd. The flight accelerated to over 2,000 miles per hour (Mach 2.7). More than 600 affluent customers to date, including celebrities Brad Pitt and Katy Perry, have reserved a $250,000 (£200,000) seat on one of Virgin's space trips, The billionaire mogul has previously said he expects Elon Musk to win the race to Mars with his private rocket firm SpaceX. Richard Branson with the Virgin Galactic craft SpaceShipTwo can carry six passengers and two pilots. Each passenger gets the same seating position with two large windows - one to the side and one overhead. The space ship is 60ft long with a 90inch diameter cabin allowing maximum room for the astronauts to float in zero gravity. It climbs to 50,000ft before the rocket engine ignites. SpaceShipTwo separates from its carrier craft, White Knight II, once it's passed the 50-mile mark. Passengers become 'astronauts' when they reach the Karman line, the boundary of Earth's atmosphere. The spaceship will then make a sub-orbital journey with approximately six minutes of weightlessness, with the entire flight lasting approximately 1.5 hours. Advertisement

'We're about roughly a year out from human flights, depending on how the test program goes.

'We have a bunch more tests to do, and we're going to fly some human test flights before we put paying people in the rocket.'

Blue Origin has yet to start selling seats on New Shepard flights.

'We have not yet opened our website for tickets yet, and we won't do that until we're flying the versions of the rocket and capsule that people will ride on, to be delivered some time next year,' he said. 'But we think there's a lot of interest.'

So far, more than 700 potential customers - including celebrities Brad Pitt, Katy Perry and Ashton Kutcher - have reserved a spot on one of Virgin Galactic's the suborbital trips at a cost of $250,000 (£200,000) each.

Blue Origin last week released footage from inside its reusable space capsule, flown successfully for the first time this week.

The 'Crew Capsule 2.0' reached orbit and returned to Earth with a test dummy strapped into it called Mannequin Skywalker, who can be seen taking a dizzying ride into space before returning back to Earth.

While the flight itself provided stunning views of the Earth below, the landing is not for the faint hearted, with the capsule containing the test dummy seen spinning before kicking up a cloud of dust upon impact.

GOING TO SPACE WITH BLUE ORIGIN: HOW IT WORKS The system consists of a pressurised crew capsule atop a reusable 'New Shepard' booster rocket. The two vehicles launch together, accelerating for approximately two and a half minutes, before the engine cuts off. The capsule then separates from the booster to coast quietly into space. After a few minutes of free fall, the booster performs an autonomous rocket-powered vertical landing. The passenger capsule lands softly under parachutes, both ready to be used again. Like previous Blue origin launches, the New Shepard rocket fired into orbit (one) before disconnecting from the passenger capsule (two), and then landing vertically (four and five) back on the launch pad. Shortly after this, the 'Crew Capsule 2.0' pod floated back to the ground (six) Advertisement

Mannequin Skywalker was launched aboard New Shepard, a prototype rocket being developed by Blue Origin, during the test flight on Tuesday.

Today, Bezos took to Twitter to share a video that captured every moment of the 11 minute long flight.

Viewers can watch out of the window as the vessel blasts off the launch pad before rapidly ascending, with the ground below quickly giving way to the blue hues of the upper atmosphere.

The craft then begins to descend, with mountains and plains below rising into view, before the craft makes a firm landing.

During the flight, Blue Origin reached a maximum altitude of 322,032 feet (62miles / 99km).

Bezos has assured future customers that they will have a better experience than Mannequin Skywalker.

Writing on Twitter, he said: 'Unlike him, you'll be able to get out of your seat during the zero gee part of the flight.

'And ignore the pinging sound – it's just from one of the experiments on this flight.'

The capsule's roomy interior includes seats for six travellers, who will be treated to views from the 'largest windows in space' when the firm begins commercial flights.

Launching from Blue Origin's West Texas Launch Site, Tuesday's test featured the latest version of the firm's reusable New Shepard rocket, its first flight in 14 months.

In October, Bezos said Blue Origin will take tourists into orbit 'within the next 18 months'.

The company isn't yet taking reservations or publishing its ticket prices, with would-be riders forced to wait until the firm completes its tests.

In a separate video of the launch, the New Shepard rocket is captured firing into orbit, disconnecting from the capsule, and then landing vertically back on the launch pad.

Shortly after this, the 'Crew Capsule 2.0' pod is seen floating back to the ground under two enormous parachutes before landing in the Texas desert at around 1 mile per hour (1.6 kph), according to Blue Origin.

Blue Origin, the space tourism firm owned by Amazon's Jeff Bezos, has successfully flown its reusable space tourism passenger capsule for the first time. This image shows the capsule after it landed near the launch site in western Texas, with a test dummy pictured in the right window

At the end of the video, the firm teased in big letters: 'Ready to fly?'

In addition to the dummy, yesterday's 10-minute test flight carried 12 commercial, research and educational payloads within the crew capsule, Blue Origin said.

The capsule offers 530 cubic feet (15 cubic metres) of space - large enough for passengers to float freely and turn weightless somersaults.

The include reclining black seats with blue piping, and seats emblazoned with the Blue Origin feather logo.

'Today's flight of New Shepard was a tremendous success,' Blue Origin CEO Bob Smith said at the time.

The 'Crew Capsule 2.0' reached orbit and returned to Earth with a test dummy strapped into it called 'Mannequin Skywalker' (pictured), who 'had a great ride', according to Bezos

In a video of the launch, the New Shepard rocket is captured launching into orbit, disconnecting from the capsule, and then landing vertically (pictured left and right) back on its launch pad

'It marks the inaugural flight of our next-generation crew capsule as we continue step-by-step progress in our test flight program.'

On Twitter, Blue Origin founder Jeff Bezos wrote: '#NewShepard had a successful first flight of Crew Capsule 2.0 today. Complete with windows and our instrumented test dummy. He had a great ride.'

Blue Origin's suborbital New Shepard launch system consists of a rocket and capsule designed to fly payloads and passengers to about 100 kilometres (62 miles) above the planet.

ELON MUSK'S HISTORIC SPACEX MOON MISSION Musk says the mission will 'skim the surface of the moon, go quite a bit further out into deep space' and then return to Earth. However, he has refused to reveal who the two paying tourists are SpaceX is to launch a private mission on a journey to circumnavigate the moon and return to Earth. Lift-off will be from Kennedy Space Center's historic Pad 39A near Cape Canaveral – the same launch pad used by the Apollo program for its lunar missions. The mission will use one of SpaceX's Dragon capsules, which will be modified to allow communications in deep space. The Dragon will be capable of operating autonomously throughout the whole flight, but the passengers will be trained in emergency procedures. The mission would 'do a long loop around the moon' and would take about a week. Musk says it will 'skim the surface of the moon, go quite a bit further out into deep space' and then return to Earth. The total flight would go about 300,000 to 400,000 miles into space. The mission will use one of SpaceX's Dragon capsules, which will be modified to allow communications in deep space. The mission will use one of SpaceX's Dragon capsules, which will be modified to allow communications in deep space. Musk said it would be roughly the cost of a crewed mission to the International Space Station, and that other flight crews have already expressed interest in later flights. 'This presents an opportunity for humans to return to deep space for the first time in 45 years and they will travel faster and further into the Solar System than any before them,' SpaceX said. The mission would 'do a long loop around the moon' and would take about a week. 'It would skim the surface of the moon, go quite a bit further out into deep space' and then return to Earth, Musk said. 'There is some risk here,' he said, adding the hopeful passengers are not 'naive' about the dangers. Advertisement

Test flights with crew members aboard are expected to begin next year.

Every seat on the flight will have access to a large window, which the company says is made of multiple layers of fracture-tough materials.

Minimising distortion and reflection, the windows transmit 92 per cent of visible light giving them visibility 'as good as glass', according to Blue Origin.

The system consists of a pressurised capsule on top of a reusable booster rocket.

The two vehicles launch together, accelerating for approximately two and a half minutes, before the engine cuts off.

The capsule then separates from the booster to coast quietly into space.

After a few minutes of free fall, the booster performs an autonomous rocket-powered vertical landing, while the capsule lands softly under parachutes, both ready to be used again.