Live updates: Jeff Bezos Blue Origin announcement

Jeff Bezos, Elon Musk and Richard Branson started all their own space operations in the early 2000s.

All three billionaires are credited with helping to launch a new era of space travel by raising money into projects that were once considered risky or expensive for the private sector.

Bezos has been relatively low key about his space tasks that make

Elon Musk

Elon Musks rocket company SpaceX has been at the center of most of the media attention. It has developed cheap, reusable rockets that now regularly draw satellites to orbit. The company also wins high-profile contracts with NASA and the military, and daring plans for the colonization of Mars have been announced.

Richard Branson

The British serial entrepreneur has also exercised his signature showmanship to promote Virgin Galactic, a space tourism that hundreds of customers have already lined up for. It could open for business this year.

Bezo's huge e-commerce wealth could give Blue Origin a layer up in the billionaires' races. Bezos has said that he is filling Blue Origins coupons by selling about $ 1[ads1] billion of his Amazon (AMZN) stock each year. This means that the company has not had to worry about avenging investors, giving it some freedom in relation to its competitors.