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Amazon founder and CEO Jeff Bezos can launch an e-commerce giant, he can launch the world's most popular e-reader, the Kindle, and he is likely to soon launch a new tablet to compete with Apple's iPad. But he hasn't yet been able to launch a rocket that successfully leads to space tourism.

It's not for a lack of trying, though.

But Bezos' space tourism dream was dealt a setback this week after a spacecraft funded by the Amazon chief was lost during a recent test. The spacecraft had a successful test three months ago, but Bezos wrote in a note on the Web site for Blue Origin, his space venture, that researchers "lost the vehicle during a developmental test at Mach 1.2 and an altitude of 45,000 feet."

"Not the outcome any of us wanted, but we're signed up for this to be hard, and the Blue Origin team is doing an outstanding job," Bezos wrote. "We're already working on our next development vehicle."

Bezos said there was no crew on board the capsule.

"We're working on the sub-orbital crew capsule separately, as well as an orbital crew vehicle to support NASA's Commercial Crew program," Bezos said.