A wealthy individual paid $28 million on Saturday to win an auction for a ticket to participate in the first tourist space flight organized by Blue Origin on July 20, which will include its founder Jeff Bezos. The winner, whose identity will be revealed in the coming weeks, outbid around twenty participants in the final stage of the auction, which took less than ten minutes online. The seat was auctioned in May, and bids reached $4.8 million by Thursday. The final bidding stage on Saturday started from that amount. The winner will be accompanied by Amazon founder Jeff Bezos and his brother Mark.
Bidding quickly escalated to $10 million, then participants represented by staff from the auction house RR Auction competed in increments of one million until the price reached $28 million. The winner will also need to pay a 6% commission. Proceeds from the auction will go to the "Club for the Future" foundation established by Blue Origin, aimed at encouraging young people to pursue careers in science and aerospace.
Jeff Bezos, who will step down as CEO of Amazon in July, announced in early June that he would be part of the first crewed flight into space on the New Shepard rocket alongside his brother Mark and a third individual, the auction winner. Blue Origin’s commercial director, Ariane Cornell, stated on Saturday that a fourth unnamed space tourist will also participate in the flight.
The pressurized capsule, featuring large windows and located atop the rocket, can accommodate six people with specially designed reclining seats to absorb landing shock, according to Blue Origin. The New Shepard rocket launches vertically from a desert in West Texas, with the capsule separating at approximately 75 kilometers altitude, continuing to ascend to surpass the Kármán line at an elevation of 100 kilometers, which demarcates the boundary between the Earth’s atmosphere and space.
Passengers will have the opportunity to float in microgravity for three minutes and observe the curvature of the Earth. Meanwhile, the rocket will return, landing gently on a runway. The capsule will subsequently begin its free-fall return to Earth, slowing its speed with three large parachutes and braking rockets before landing in the desert.
The New Shepard has successfully conducted more than 15 uncrewed test flights, and Ariane Cornell confirmed on Saturday that the company is ready to send astronauts into space, noting that only 569 people have gone beyond the Kármán line to date.
This flight comes amid increasing competition between Blue Origin and Elon Musk's SpaceX, as well as Richard Branson’s Virgin Galactic. Space exploration is a priority for Jeff Bezos and is expected to generate significant income, although Blue Origin currently lags behind its primary competitor, SpaceX, in satellite services and space missions.
Moreover, space tourism is anticipated to provide lucrative revenue opportunities, as exemplified by the ticket price achieved in the auction on Saturday. Richard Branson is expected to participate in a test flight with his company Virgin Galactic this summer, though no date for that flight has been announced. Virgin Galactic aims to launch regular commercial operations in 2022, and around 600 people have purchased tickets for its flights at prices ranging from $200,000 to $250,000.
