One lucky auction participant will pay a large sum of money to join billionaire Jeff Bezos on his company’s first trip to space.
The winning bid was $28 million, Blue Origin, the space company Bezos founded, announced Saturday. Nearly 7,600 people registered to bid on the auction from nearly 160 countries.
BEZOS TO FLY ON HIS COMPANY’S FIRST PASSENGER SPACEFLIGHT
The company did not release the name of the winner, but it said his or her identity will be released “in the weeks following the auction’s conclusion.”
The unnamed winner and Bezos will also be accompanied by the Amazon CEO’s brother, Mark Bezos.
They are set to depart on the New Shepard’s first passenger flight July 20 on a six-person ship.
When the group departs, the spacecraft will launch to about 100 kilometers above Earth, the marker for the unofficial point at which space begins. Once the crew capsule enters suborbital space, it will detach from the top of the rocket, and the passengers will experience weightlessness while gazing out at Earth.
Once the detachment maneuver has concluded, the booster will come back down to land vertically, and the capsule will return to Earth’s surface using parachutes.
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The trip will last about 10 minutes and provide roughly two to three minutes of weightlessness for passengers aboard the craft, according to a visual diagram about the mission from Blue Origin.
The proceeds from the auction will be donated to the company’s foundation, Club for the Future, which is designed to inspire future generations to pursue careers in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics.
