A space company . owned by Amazon.com founder Jeff Bezos has finished work on a. rocket engine for a suborbital spaceship . Called Blue Origin , the firm expects to begin . flight tests this year . The so-called New Shepard spaceship is designed to fly three . people and/or a mix of passengers and payloads to altitudes . about 62 miles ( 100 km ) above Earth . Scroll down for video . The New Shepard system will take astronauts to space on suborbital journeys , and the firm is also developing an orbital craft , shown here . It will launch from Blue . Origin 's west Texas facility near Van Horn , Texas , southeast of . El Paso . Testing and development of the rocket engine , called BE-3 , . has been completed , the last major milestone before the liquid . oxygen- and liquid hydrogen-fueled motor is attached to the New . Shepard capsule for flight , Blue Origin President Rob Meyerson . told reporters on a conference call . Privately owned Blue Origin has not started selling tickets . for flights on New Shepard or released pricing information . 'The engine is ready for flight ... and ready for other . commercial users , ' Meyerson said . He declined to be more . specific about when New Shepard would fly , except to say 'soon . ' The New Shepard system will take astronauts to space on suborbital journeys . The New Shepard vehicle includes a Crew Capsule carrying three or more astronauts atop a separate rocket-powered Propulsion Module , launched from the firm 's West Texas Launch Site . Following liftoff , the combined vehicles accelerate for approximately two and a half minutes . The Propulsion Module then shuts off its rocket engines and separates from the Crew Capsule . The Propulsion Module will finish its flight , descend to Earth , and autonomously perform a rocket-powered vertical landing . The Crew Capsule will go on to coast to the edge of space , providing astronauts with a view to the curvature of the Earth and the beauty of our planet . After descent and reentry into Earth ’ s atmosphere , the Crew Capsule will land under parachutes near the launch site . In addition , the New Shepard vehicle will provide opportunities for researchers to fly experiments into space and a microgravity environment . Blue Origin's Orbital Reusable Booster System . The capsule will fly dozens of times unmanned before the . test flights include pilots , Meyerson added . When finished , the New Shepard vehicle includes a Crew Capsule carrying three or more astronauts atop a separate rocket-powered Propulsion Module , launched from the firm 's West Texas Launch Site . Following liftoff , the combined vehicles accelerate for approximately two and a half minutes . The Propulsion Module then shuts off its rocket engines and separates from the Crew Capsule . The Propulsion Module will finish its flight , descend to Earth , and autonomously perform a rocket-powered vertical landing . The Crew Capsule will go on to coast to the edge of space , providing astronauts with a view to the curvature of the Earth and the beauty of our planet . After descent and reentry into Earth ’ s atmosphere , the Crew Capsule will land under parachutes near the launch site . Blue Origin is among a handful of companies planning to . offer commercial spaceflight services . New Shepard is a. suborbital system , like Virgin Galactic 's SpaceShipTwo , a. six-passenger , two-pilot spaceplane that is expected to resume . test flights later this year following a fatal accident in . Mojave , California , on Oct. 31 , 2014 . Another company , privately owned XCOR Aerospace , is working . on a two-seater spaceplane called Lynx that also is slated to . debut this year , founder and chief technology officer Jeff . Greason said . Other companies , including Space Exploration Technologies , . or SpaceX , and Boeing , are skipping suborbital . spaceflight and developing systems to carry people into orbit . Blue Origin intends to parlay its suborbital New Shepard . vehicle into an orbital launch system , expected to begin flying . later this decade . That vehicle will be powered by a liquefied . natural gas motor , called the BE-4 , that is being developed with . United Launch Alliance , a partnership of Lockheed Martin Corp. and Boeing . The recently completed BE-3 engine also will be modified to . serve as an upper-stage motor to fly satellites into orbit , . Meyerson said .
New Shepard spaceship is expected to fly 200 people . Will reach altitudes about 60 miles ( 100 km ) above Earth . Firm expected to sell 500 tickets for its spacecraft .