WATCH LIVE: Jeff Bezos Launches to Space in Blue Origin Spacecraft

Former Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos is about to go to space today as he and three crew mates are preparing to blast off from West Texas. The launch is scheduled to occur at 9:15 a.m. ET.

Bezos’ journey to space will be the maiden flight of the New Shepard rocket developed by his aerospace manufacturing company, Blue Origin. The flight comes days after Virgin Galactic founder Richard Branson made a breakthrough in commercial space travel when he and his crew test flew a space plane near the edge of Earth’s atmosphere.

The date was chosen since July 20th marks the 52nd anniversary of when the crew of Apollo 11 became the first men to walk on the moon. Even though Branson was able to get to space ahead of his fellow billionaire tycoon, Bezos’ ship is expected to go all the way up to the Karman line, the theoretical boundary between Earth and space.

Bezos and his team gave a series of interview on Monday to promote the launch, during which, he was asked whether he and his fellow billionaires would be better off resolving issues on Earth, rather than focusing on space travel. Bezos answered by acknowledging the point of his critics, though he stressed that making inroads to space will help resolve terrestrial issues.

Watch above, via NBC.