text: A space company . owned by Amazon.com founder Jeff Bezos has finished work on a . rocket engine for a suborbital spaceship. Called Blue Origin, the firm expects to begin . flight tests this year. The so-called New Shepard spaceship is designed to fly three . people and/or a mix of passengers and payloads to altitudes . about 62 miles (100 km) above Earth. Scroll down for video . The New Shepard system will take astronauts to space on suborbital journeys, and the firm is also developing an orbital craft, shown here. It will launch from Blue . Origin's west Texas facility near Van Horn, Texas, southeast of . El Paso. Testing and development of the rocket engine, called BE-3, . has been completed, the last major milestone before the liquid . oxygen- and liquid hydrogen-fueled motor is attached to the New . Shepard capsule for flight, Blue Origin President Rob Meyerson . told reporters on a conference call. Privately owned Blue Origin has not started selling tickets . for flights on New Shepard or released pricing information. 'The engine is ready for flight ... and ready for other . commercial users,' Meyerson said. He declined to be more . specific about when New Shepard would fly, except to say 'soon.' The New Shepard system will take astronauts to space on suborbital journeys. The New Shepard vehicle includes a Crew Capsule carrying three or more astronauts atop a separate rocket-powered Propulsion Module, launched from the firm's West Texas Launch Site. Following liftoff, the combined vehicles accelerate for approximately two and a half minutes. The Propulsion Module then shuts off its rocket engines and separates from the Crew Capsule. The Propulsion Module will finish its flight, descend to Earth, and autonomously perform a rocket-powered vertical landing. The Crew Capsule will go on to coast to the edge of space, providing astronauts with a view to the curvature of the Earth and the beauty of our planet. After descent and reentry into Earth’s atmosphere, the Crew Capsule will land under parachutes near the launch site. In addition, the New Shepard vehicle will provide opportunities for researchers to fly experiments into space and a microgravity environment. Blue Origin's Orbital Reusable Booster System . The capsule will fly dozens of times unmanned before the . test flights include pilots, Meyerson added. When finished, the New Shepard vehicle includes a Crew Capsule carrying three or more astronauts atop a separate rocket-powered Propulsion Module, launched from the firm's West Texas Launch Site. Following liftoff, the combined vehicles accelerate for approximately two and a half minutes. The Propulsion Module then shuts off its rocket engines and separates from the Crew Capsule. The Propulsion Module will finish its flight, descend to Earth, and autonomously perform a rocket-powered vertical landing. The Crew Capsule will go on to coast to the edge of space, providing astronauts with a view to the curvature of the Earth and the beauty of our planet. After descent and reentry into Earth’s atmosphere, the Crew Capsule will land under parachutes near the launch site. Blue Origin is among a handful of companies planning to . offer commercial spaceflight services. New Shepard is a . suborbital system, like Virgin Galactic's SpaceShipTwo, a . six-passenger, two-pilot spaceplane that is expected to resume . test flights later this year following a fatal accident in . Mojave, California, on Oct. 31, 2014. Another company, privately owned XCOR Aerospace, is working . on a two-seater spaceplane called Lynx that also is slated to . debut this year, founder and chief technology officer Jeff . Greason said. Other companies, including Space Exploration Technologies, . or SpaceX, and Boeing, are skipping suborbital . spaceflight and developing systems to carry people into orbit. Blue Origin intends to parlay its suborbital New Shepard . vehicle into an orbital launch system, expected to begin flying . later this decade. That vehicle will be powered by a liquefied . natural gas motor, called the BE-4, that is being developed with . United Launch Alliance, a partnership of Lockheed Martin Corp . and Boeing. The recently completed BE-3 engine also will be modified to . serve as an upper-stage motor to fly satellites into orbit, . Meyerson said.
target: New Shepard spaceship is designed to fly three people .
  Will reach altitudes about 62 miles (100 km) above Earth .
  Firm expected to sell tourist tickets for its spacecraft .