Bidder Pays $28 Million To Fly To Space With Jeff Bezos In July
Earlier this week it was announced that Jeff Bezos, with his Blue Origin rocket company, plans to travel to space on July 20 — the 52nd anniversary of the Apollo 11 moon landing. Now, he will be joined by an unidentified enthusiastic bidder, who dropped an astronomical $28 million on Saturday (June 12) to fly with him.
While we won’t know the winner’s name for a few more weeks following the auction, we do know that for $28 million, the unknown person now has a seat aboard the New Shepard spacecraft, sitting alongside rocket owner and Amazon founder Bezos, his brother Mark and another passenger. The aircraft, which will launch from a test facility near Van Horn, Texas, is set to make history next month taking flight into space for about 10-to-12 minutes.
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Bidding for the sub-orbital flight began at $4.8 million and in less than two minutes it skyrocketed to $10 million, doubling to $20 million in a minute and 10 seconds after that, and eventually halted at $28 million a little more than six minutes after the auction’s final round began. It’s reported that about 7,600 people from 159 countries registered for the auction. The proceeds are set to be donated to Blue Origin’s foundation, “Club for the Future,” which, the company said in an earlier release, aims to inspire “the next generation as they go off and think about millions of people living and working in space … which is precisely what Blue Origin’s vision is.”
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The name of the auction winner will be released in the weeks following the auction’s conclusion. Then, the fourth and final crew member will be announced – stay tuned.
— Blue Origin (@blueorigin) June 12, 2021