Initially, the company was called New Shepard Aerospace and was focused on developing a suborbital spaceplane. The goal was to create a reusable launch system that could carry people to space and back. Bezos was inspired by the concept of space tourism and wanted to create a vehicle that could take people to the edge of space and back.

Bezos assembled a team of experienced engineers and scientists, including Mark Bezos, his brother, and BOB Smith, a former NASA engineer. The team worked tirelessly to develop the New Shepard spaceplane, which was designed to be reusable and efficient.