Jeff Bezos' Blue Origin inks deal with UAE for promoting space tourism

In what can be seen as a significant step in boosting its space program, the UAE government has engaged in talks with billionaire Jeff Bezos's Blue Origin to ensure a partnership for commercial space tourism. The talks reportedly took place between UAE's Minister of Economy, Abdulla bin Touq Al Marri and Blue Origin's Vice President Brent Sherwood at the ongoing International Astronautical Congress (IAC) in Dubai. This comes after reports emerged that Bezos was eyeing a location in UAE to use it as a spaceport, as per The National News. 

UAE plans to establish "an open economic ecosystem", says Al-Marri

Both the entities have reportedly agreed to collaborate to boost space tourism along with ensuring economic development through space-related ventures. Talking about the partnership, the Minister of Economy asserted that UAE's partnerships aim to establish an open economic ecosystem that would attract investments to the country creating an advanced investment environment along with boosting sustainable development.

"Through this collaboration, we look forward to leveraging Blue Origin’s leading expertise in space manufacturing and space and low Earth orbit flight services to support the UAE’s plans. We are also keen to expand the scope of our partnerships with Blue Origin to build and develop space tourism and enhance the national efforts in this respect," Al Marri was quoted by The National News as saying.

Blue Origin's representative Sherwood, on the other hand, also expressed his excitement for the deal and confirmed that discussions for a partnership is surely underway as UAE is an "obvious choice". He shared that spending two nights in Sharjah and stargazing in the desert made him realise that desert areas in the UAE are promising as they are just a few minutes away from the cities.

"It’s an obvious place to look here. All we really need is some desert. One of the enduring qualities of the West Texas desert is that it is hard to get to the El Paso airport. You have to drive for a couple of hours and it is in the middle of nowhere,"  The National News quoted Brent Sherwood as saying.

Blue Origin finds an advisor in private company AzurX

Dubai-based company AzurX has stepped up as a strategic adviser to Blue Origin and will reportedly act as a bridge between the collaborators. In an interview with The National News, Chief Executive of AzurX Anna Hazlett has revealed that its purpose will be to provide localisation strategy to Blue Origin in the UAE and help in customer management for future flights.

Image: Twitter/@HSajwanization/AP