How Jeff Bezos turned 165,000 acres of Texas ranchland into Blue Origin’s launch site

​More than two decades ago, Jeff Bezos began building his space ambitions in West Texas. The Amazon founder began buying ranchland near Van Horn in 2004 and, by 2005, had accumulated 165,000 acres to serve as a base for Blue Origin’s private spaceflight operations. The property was originally called Corn Ranch, which is a remote place to develop and test rockets away from population centers.​Years later, on July 20, 2021, Bezos launched from the site aboard Blue Origin’s New Shepard rocket on the company’s first human spaceflight. The mission took four people to the edge of space and was a milestone in Bezos' plans to expand human access to space.