New Delhi: A person won the bid to fly alongside Jeff Bezos and his brother by shelling out $28 million for booking a seat on Blue Origin’s spacecraft that is set to go into space next month.
Blue Origin said that 7,500 people from 159 countries registered to bid. The top bid on Friday had reached $4.8 million. The bidding war was set on fire after Bezos announced early this week that his brother would be onboard New Shepard's first crew flight.
Bezos-owned Blue Origin, however, hasn’t officially revealed the name of the winner after the live auction. The space tech company is expected to disclose the name of the winner in a couple of weeks.
The flight to space will take off from West Texas on July 20, which marks the 52nd anniversary of Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin's historic moon landing that changed the meaning of space exploration for humans.
This is the first time Blue Origin's New Shepard rocket will go into space with real humans on board. Bezos taking the risk to become the first of the persons to go into space on the company’s rocket can also be seen as a popularity stunt that might kick off his space tourism business.
Previously, fifteen test flights of the reusable rocket and capsule since 2015 have been conducting successfully. The short hops lasted about 10 minutes.
The money coming from the bid will be used for Blue Origin's Club for the Future. Notably, Blue Origin's Club for the Future is an educational effort to promote science and tech among young people.
