Amazon founder Jeff Bezos says his space transportation company, Blue Origin, plans about two more years of test flights before it will offer rides to passengers.
Blue Origin has successfully landed a suborbital rocket back at its launch site, a key step in its drive to make reusable rockets, the company said on Tuesday.
"This flight retired a lot of risk and validated of lot of the elements of the design," Bezos, who founded Amazon.com Inc and owns the Washington Post newspaper, said.
Being able to refly a rocket will slash launch costs, a game-changer for the space industry, Bezos said.
"When you lower the cost of access to space very significantly you will change the markets, you will change what's possible."
About two more years of test flights are planned before people will ride on the New Shepard spacecraft, Bezos said.
The vehicles are designed to carry six passengers about 100 kilometres above Earth, breaching the boundary between the atmosphere and space.
"We'll enter into commercial operations when we're ready. In my view, if you can think of another test to do, you do it," Bezos said.
A New Shepard rocket blasted off from Blue Origin's West Texas launch site on Monday, reached a suborbital altitude of 100 km and landed back at the launch site eight minutes later.
In suborbital spaceflight, rockets are not travelling fast enough to reach the speed required to counter the pull of Earth's gravity, so they re-enter the atmosphere like a ballistic missile.
Another New Shepard rocket failed its first landing attempt in April due to a hydraulic system problem.
The redesigned system now includes a backup second pump.
