One lucky person will join billionaire Jeff Bezos and his brother, Mark, on the first commercial trip to space aboard the reusable shuttle, New Shepard.
But the seat didn’t come without a hefty price tag, since the currently unidentified soon-to-be flyer threw down a whopping $28 million for the coveted seat in an auction held on June 12, 2021.
Nearly 7,600 people registered to bid from 159 countries. The company said that the winning bid will be donated to Blue Origin’s foundation, Club For The Future, whose mission is to inspire future generations to pursue careers in the STEM fields.
The name of the winner be “released in the weeks following the auction’s conclusion,” said Blue Origins. A fourth and final crew member will also be announced at that time.
Operated by Bezos’ flight-testing company Blue Origin, the New Shepard is part of Mission NS-15 and is expected to launch on July 20, after testing began in 2012. The reusable suborbital rocket system will take astronauts past the Kármán line — the internationally recognized boundary of space. Each passenger will have their own window seat aboard the pressurized autonomous vehicle and will touch back down on Earth after an 11-minute flight to space.