Multi-billionaire Amazon founder Jeff Bezos’ long held dream to become a space mogul has taken another step closer to reality following the announcement by his rocket company Blue Origin that it is ready to begin test flights. Unlike fellow tech-titan Elon Musk’s side project SpaceX which has won a NASA contract to resupply the International Space Station, Bezos’ spaceships will initially be suborbital and able to carry three passengers to the edge of space.

The BE-3 engine developed by Blue Origin was built from scratch and has been subjected to 450 tests. You can see it action below:

The entire Blue Origin project has cost Bezos a little over $500 million. Small change to him.

The state sponsored European Space Agency has a $5 billion budget this year and still hasn’t managed to build a manned space craft..