Bezos' Blue Origin announces plans for private space station

Jeff Bezos' Blue Origin on Monday announced it wants to launch a space station that will house up to 10 people in the second half of the decade, as the race to commercialize the cosmos heats up.

The space station will be named "Orbital Reef" and is a joint venture with commercial space company Sierra Space - known for their Dream Chaser, a winged space-plane designed to carry cargo - and has the support of Boeing and Arizona State University. 

"For over sixty years, NASA and other space agencies have developed orbital space flight and space habitation, setting us up for commercial business to take off in this decade," said Blue Origin executive Brent Sherwood.

"We will expand access, lower the cost, and provide all the services and amenities needed to normalize space flight."

"Orbital Reef" is one of several private outposts planned in the coming years. It will fly at an altitude of 310 miles, slightly above the International Space Station, with inhabitants experiencing 32 sunrises and sunsets a day. 

Bezos, the second richest man in the world thanks to e-commerce giant Amazon, founded Blue Origin in 2000, with the goal of one day building floating space colonies with artificial gravity where millions of people will work and live, freeing Earth from pollution.

Blue Origin is currently only able to fly to suborbital space with its New Shepard rocket, which blasted Star Trek actor William Shatner beyond the atmosphere, earlier this month.