What will it be like to travel with Jeff Bezos’s space tourism company Blue Origin? The billionaire CEO disclosed a few more details about what passengers on its New Shepard capsule can expect at a symposium in Colorado Springs last week.
The capsule is outfitted with handrails and soft walls and even has “in-flight escape” systems, which would safely bring passengers back to earth in the case of an aborted launch.
But it’s missing two notable features: Bathrooms and barf bags.
“Go to the bathroom in advance,” Bezos said at the conference. “The whole thing, from boarding until you’re back on the ground, is probably 40 or 41 minutes. So you’re going to be fine. You could dehydrate ever so slightly if you have a weak bladder.” The space tourism vehicle is expected to take its first tourists to space by 2018.
New Shepard ticket-holders will board the aircraft and travel to space for an 11-minute ride. Passengers will be strapped into black leather seats, and once the capsule reaches space, they’ll be allowed to leave their seats and experience four minutes of weightlessness.
Bezos dismissed the notion that weightlessness may make people nauseous, explaining that the Blue Origin flight would be too short to induce vomiting.
“[People] don’t throw up right away,” he said, adding that vomiting doesn’t typically happen until three hours into a flight. “We’re not going to worry about it. … It’s a delayed effect, and this journey takes 10 or 11 minutes. So you’re going to be fine.”
For those space fanatics willing to go on a Blue Origin flight, be sure to keep your bodily functions in check.